Undercover
by anamatics
Summary: The TSAB discovers a powerful Lost Logia on Earth seven years after the Book of Darkness incident and can't seem to find it. They call in the best and brightest to discover the source of the rogue artifact. Only they discover magical zombies upon arrival.
1. Discoveries

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter One, "Discovery"

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_Late February, Seven Years after the Book of Darkness incident and Reinforce's death_

Unmonitored and under-developed worlds were, in general, left alone by the Time and Space Administration Bureau. Normally, someone - usually a cadet trained to recognize warning signs and little else - would run a routine check on the planets once every six months central time to make sure that there were no out of the ordinary magical spikes upon them. It was a force of habit that kept them even aware of some of the minor worlds with no prominent technology or magical prowess that they were supposed to supervise. The problem was that everyone who worked for the TSAB knew that it was the minor worlds that oftentimes created the most powerful magical beings that the Bureau had to deal with. They were the breading grounds of the high-ranking mages that slipped easily through the ranks of the inter-dimensional organizations and soon became the most powerful people to work within the TSAB.

Still, the ever-vigilant agency kept their guard up around the minor planets, especially in more recent years when a series of incidents involving Lost Logia, the technological marvels from long-forgotten civilizations had found their way onto one of the unmonitored planets. Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown of the Time and Space Administration Bureau knew better than most the power that unregistered relics of that forgotten time could hold on a non magical world. While she was still only starting her career as an Enforcer, Fate was an old veteran when it came to understanding what went on behind the scenes of the bureaucracy that created the inter-dimensional governmental and military structure. The TSAB was a slow creature, one that could not be moved very quickly at all when it came to change; for they were in charge of regulating countless worlds and keeping a close watch over the lost technology that could destroy their very way of life.

Despite the fact that the Bureau was as vigilant as it could be, there were still rows and rows of old data cards with information about the unmonitored planets stored onboard every ship that flew out of Mid-Childa on a scheduled patrol. No one ever really knew when one of the planets would suddenly find itself playing host to the destructive power of the Lost Logia.

While her work generally tended to keep her on-world, Fate had started to find herself, once again, calling the small private cabin rank allowed her on her adopted brother's ship home. She liked it better there, away from the chaos and highly modern cities on Mid-Childa. There was enough quiet that she could do the more boring parts of her job - the long tedious hours spent staring at the dim glow of her intelligent device, Bardiche's, monitor display screen, pouring through data as she tried to solve off-world crime her work as quickly and as efficiently as she could.

She was too powerful, she knew, to actually hold the rank that her power and skill as a mage demanded within the Bureau at such a young age. They resented her for her skill; her mage ranking and the fact that after every single ranking she'd ever held were the words 'first class' signifying that she was the best of the best. Fate had given up long ago trying to explain herself to every would-be junior officer who tried to question her authority. She simply allowed them to believe what they wanted about her, but at the same time she knew how desperately the Bureau needed highly skilled and ranked mages of her generation. There were so few powerful children any more, for magic was going out of worlds like Mid-Childa and into the unmonitored worlds. This shift was enough to make even Fate worry about the safety of those worlds that the TSAB didn't pay much attention to, for a child of magical power who was left on their own could only cause havoc. That was the reason that she spent so much of her free time pawing through the data of many years, just to make sure that no child of magical ability would be alone in the world ever again.

When she was not active on a case, Fate's direct superiors gave her the most menial tasks they could find. They had her scroll through years of back-data on many unmonitored worlds that she herself had never even heard of. While Fate was not above checking on Nanoha's world – _Non-Administered Planet Number Ninety Seven_ - the world that she had been given the gift of a childhood upon, the world that the TSAB simply assigned the number 'ninety-seven' to - _her_ world; she found the constant stress of having a backlog of nearly ten years worth of data that needed to be examined a little menacing at the best of times, and downright frustrating most of the time.

She was a full agent now, an Enforcer! Sixteen years old and already she'd achieved her dream, she could not have been happier. Yet everyone she worked with treated her like a child with no real experience. While Fate could take their belittlement with a smile and a nod, she resented being treated as somehow less that her direct equals simply because of her past involvement with the TSAB. She'd dealt with far more complicated and dangerous situations than many of her superiors. She should not have to deal with this level of juvenile actions from her direct superiors. It just seemed foolish and a waste of time.

She pushed her chair away from her desk and used a flick of her wrist and an almost trivial amount of magical energy to pull up another window of her desk's computer. While Bardiche functioned as a hub for all the technology that Fate had ever needed to use on the job; it was up to her to provide the magical power to bring the technological marvel to life and the magic was far more draining at this late hour when she was running on several cups of strong coffee and dinner for nearly five hours before. She sighed and peered at the second screen. The whirr of the ship's engines were enough to make her eyelids droop and the clock at the bottom of the screen told her that she should have been asleep hours ago.

"Sir," Bardiche's mechanical voice said from where she'd set him down on the desk, "These data can wait until morning before you examine them. Your wake up call is at 0600, four and a half hours from now."

Fate ignored him. She knew that Bardiche knew her better than she perhaps knew herself, and that she should heed his words. Still, however, she pressed on. She needed to look through the data and be able to report that it was, in fact, simply boring data with nothing interesting hidden within their depths. So far, it seemed as though she could do just that.

Fate closed the second computer window with a dismissive flick of her fingers and turned her attention back the first screen once more. She'd finish reading up on this final planet, number ninety-seven, and then she'd go to bed.

It might have been the late hour, or perhaps the fact that she couldn't really remember the last time that she'd slept, but Fate barely registered the fact that she was reading through data on her home world once more. After a few minutes of reading uninteresting data on the most recent wars that had broken out, she pressed a button to bring up the next screen only to find herself looking at a report on her own actions while on Earth. Fate bit back a laugh and flicked through the screens. Nothing seemed out of place, but given the fact that she'd missed that she was reading about a familiar world in the first place suggested that even the most threatening of data would seem fine to her at this late hour. This was surely a sign that she'd pushed herself too far again and that sleep was in order.

"Bardiche, power down the computers please," Fate said tiredly, pulling at her tie and shrugging off her jacket. The gentle glow of the screen faded into blackness and Bardiche made no more comments about the late hour, for which Fate was very grateful. She didn't need another reminder that she was really trying too hard for a job that really wasn't worth it. She knew that her superiors, the ones who bothered to open her file before they judged her, knew of her skills. Soon, she would be free of all of this extra work that really should have been left to someone who was ranked lower than a Triple A mage.

She stripped in short order and fell into bed clad only in her underwear. It was not protocol to do such a thing – not to mention the fact that her brother and direct superior would kill her if he ever discovered such a thing; she knew that she really should be sleeping in something in case there was some crisis before Bardiche gave her the first of his staggered wake-up calls at six the following morning. Fate couldn't bring herself to care, however. Her eyes closed and sleep claimed her, ferrying her away to a world of dreams and happiness with those she loved.

_Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown's quarters, the Warship Asura – 0747 Mid-Childa Time_

The power spike should not have been there. Fate was sure of that as she enlarged the chart just to make sure that it was not an analogy or a glitch in Bardiche's display. It was neither, a full and clear spike in magical power coming from the city where she'd attended elementary and middle school – her best friend Nanoha's town. Fate closed her eyes and concentrated hard on forcing all thoughts of _Nanoha_ out of her mind. It would not do for her to be distracted right now, especially if this turned out to be something as serious as she thought it might be. She didn't want to risk the distraction of those pretty blue eyes and charming smile.

_Damn it, there I go again_. Fate sighed. She really had no control over her thoughts when it came to her best friend, and she was never really sure how she felt them in the first place. They were just ill timed and distracting when her concentration was crucial.

This power spike was nothing to be entertaining frivolous thoughts about. This was new, different, and most certainly powerful. Something ancient and shockingly powerful had fallen onto Earth and it seemed as though it was just sitting and waiting to make its move. Fate's brow furrowed as she stared at the screen before her. She had to get in touch with her superiors, for this sort of information would not do well if left alone, for the gods above only knew what had landed on Earth this time.

She pulled up a window on the computer and opened up a communications channel with her sergeant. She had to do this properly or else it would go unnoticed.

"Enforcer Harlaown," the older man said, sounding quite surprised. On the gentle glow of Bardiche's screen, Fate could see him setting down a mug of coffee. He looked wholly unprepared for the bomb that she was about to drop on him. She sighed, for it really couldn't be helped. "What can I do for you?"

Fate launched into the most precise description of what she'd noticed, carefully tailoring her language so that the level of panic that had settled in the pit of her stomach was all but unnoticeable. She knew that this man knew her history, and he would soon pick up on her concern for her home world, but she had to be honest and state her findings without bias. This report had to go through without a hitch.

_Early March, the Bridge, the Warship Asura – 1543 Mid-Childa Time_

It had become increasingly more and more evident to everyone involved in the investigation of Non-Administered Planet Ninety Seven that the mid-level planet would be a hard place to investigate. The world was full of hundreds of different nations and thousands of languages that not even the most advanced translator spells could penetrate. The mages and enforcers that the Time and Space Administration Bureau had sent into the field had returned quickly, stating that it was next to impossible for them to get by in such a society. They could not function undercover because they had no previous training on how to meld into such a society.

Admiral Chrono Harlaown chewed thoughtfully on the tip of his thumb as he poured over the limited results that his enforcers had managed to produce. They could not handle the strain of working in such a place, and their skills, however great as enforcers, were simply not enough to handle the complex cultural structure of getting around in that particular region of the unmonitored planet. What they needed, Chrono realized, was a small, efficient force that had spent time on the planet before and knew how to blend in.

He couldn't have any more of his staff potentially arrested by the Earth's authorities. They stuck out like sore thumbs with their alien hair colors and odd accents that no one could place. He knew that he should just sacrifice some of his creditability and go himself, for he at least had the language skills to recognize the potential problems with the planet – and his contacts on Earth had told him quite clearly that there was nothing wrong. It was only the power readings that his sister had found and the continued failure of his personnel that made Chrono feel as though there were a major problem in the way that he was conducting this investigation. His people were fools, thinking that they could simply integrate themselves into Earth – even he'd never been able to pull it off, and he'd lived there for nearly four years. He didn't have the power or the influence to fix their mistakes any more than he had the ability to fix this most recent problem.

The power spikes were becoming more and more frequent and they were no closer to figuring out their cause. The data that they'd collected suggested that there was a concentration of power and chaos around a certain area. Chrono knew the area quite well, for it was near where his mother had staked out her base of operations during the Book of Darkness incident and on into Fate's time in school. He couldn't help but worry for the friends that he'd made while he'd bee there. Having a Lost Logia that had unknown capabilities lose near where you lived was not a fate that Chrono would wish on anyone.

He wished that he wasn't so powerless to stop the constant power spikes and strange instances on Earth, and he knew that the rest of his crew was feeling the frustration as well. There was a level of tension aboard the Asura caused by their continued failure that Chrono could not stand. It did little to the morale of his crew and the level of annoyance that he personally felt over even the smallest details was almost too much for him to bear at times. He had to find some way of resolving this problem with people who could actually work within the constraints of the world they were investigating.

He needed his sister - and perhaps her best friend.

Chrono's frown deepened. He would be accused of favoritism and so much more if he hand picked his sister from the ranks of the junior enforcers to go in on a potentially long-term, solo mission where the TSAB would have very little ability to influence her actions while on the ground. He didn't even think that he could find a way to explain the fact that he thought that he needed two unofficially single S ranked mages on such a mid-level technology planet. There was no rhyme or reason to it, if one looked at the situation objectively. Chrono supposed that he could make an argument, as he usually did, for Fate's continued excellence in both the field and on the home front. He always had to cover his ass when it came to her, even though her work and skill did not merit the treatment she received from the rest of the TSAB staff. He hated that no one thought that he could be objective when it came to his sister, and that her judgment and skill as a mage were second only to her best friend.

Perhaps, however, if he laid out his fears and his reasons behind his actions in clear enough terms to a sympathetic ear, he'd actually manage to get somewhere in this investigation. Short of going to Earth himself, he couldn't really think of another solution. It'd been close to two weeks since Fate had first noticed the power surges, and since then he'd somehow managed to become a running joke among the officers at headquarters. Chrono did not appreciate that, and he was starting to feel the pressure to do something, anything really, to make the situation remedy itself.

He opened up a computer window and smiled at the old man that swam into vision before him. "Sir," he said, keeping his tone clipped and official. Ever since he'd become an admiral, he'd been learning how to play the part of a bureaucrat, to force himself to seem unfeeling and uncaring for anything but his mission. He just shut off his personal life whenever it seemed as though he didn't have a choice but to be the unfeeling bastard that he'd sworn he'd never become. "I'd like to make a recommendation regarding the situation on Non-Administered Planet Ninety-Seven."

_Letter to Takamachi Nanoha, Private First Class, __Instructor__ Training School__, Mid-Childa_

_March 14, 072_

Nanoha,

How are you? I heard tell of your latest exploits through my brother, and he seems to think that someday you and Hayate will be running the entire TSAB. Good for you – although I'm a little afraid of the idea of Hayate-chan in that much power. She'll take over the universe if we're not careful...

I have some troubling news, as is usually the case when I write these sorts of letters. We talk so often that it seems almost pointless to write this down and send it to you, but I know that no one on Mid-Childa speaks Japanese except for you and Hayate. It is our own secret code that not even the most skilled code-breakers at headquarters would be able to break. This is classified information, which is why I couldn't simply tell you about it during out chats.

I discovered a power spike about three weeks ago on Earth, more specifically in Japan, about fifty kilometers north from your hometown. We think that a powerful and old relic of some sort has fallen to earth as a result of the Bureau's most recent attack on that fringe maniac that was collecting the Lost Logia for his own gain. The power spike has never been recorded before, and since the final confrontation and resolution of that unfortunate bit of business took place within free time-space, the chances that this Lost Logia is both infected with ill will towards humanity, along with a hatred for the TSAB are very high. I'm really hoping that nothing bad happens because of this, I don't think that I could ever forgive myself for not catching it sooner if anyone gets hurt.

Chrono's been put in charge of the investigation, and so far the TSAB enforcers have made a rather large mess of things. They simply cannot blend in with the Japanese people they're supposed to be protecting, and the translator spell that they're using is one of the ones that Chrono came up with when he and my mother first started to venture out into Japan. I think that you'll remember a few rather entertaining instances where that spell backfired spectacularly.

Apparently, with time, the spell has become far less effective and is basically like sending someone speaking English into Japan. They cannot communicate at all, and their investigations have done little other than to pinpoint what a potential location of the Lost Logia is.

Chrono has suggested to me in that way that he does things when he's unsure of himself, that perhaps it would be better if I were to head up the investigation task force.

Nanoha, I'm not sure I'm ready to do something like this. I'm by far not the most powerful mage working for the Bureau and I'm scared of what might happen if I overstep my bounds too early in my service. If I do get the post, Chrono wants to see if he can talk to the Tactical Instructor's School and see if he can get you to be on the mission as well. It's unorthodox, but I think that it just might be our best idea at the moment. The power levels that we're detecting from Earth are almost past our scales, it's like the Book of Darkness incident all over again, only this time there's no clear enemy for us to go up against.

Until we know more, however, I'd ask that you keep this to yourself and not say anything to anyone. Chrono's worried that somehow this will come back to haunt us and I don't want to take any chances.

Until we speak next,

Fate

_Letter to Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown, stationed on the warship Asura_

_March 16th, 072_

Fate-chan,

I'm doing well. Things are really good here, and I'm really enjoying the work that I've gotten to do with the new cadets. It's so different now that we're all doing what we've wished for all of our lives; I can't think of a time that I've been more happy, and yet more lonesome. I miss you, it's like we never get to see each other any more, save for when we're both dead tired. I hate those times, for I feel as though I'm not doing enough to make our friendship work. We've know each other for so long, and I did promise to be your friend. More than anything else, I'd like to keep that promise.

I've used Hayate-chan's clearance to go through the data that you were looking at, and you're right the sudden spikes of magical power are quite alarming when one thinks about them in the context of Earth. I'm worried for those people, Fate-chan. What do we do to stop this? Has Chrono come to a decision about what he's going to do yet?

Please let me know as soon as you know.

Nanoha

_Letter to Takamachi Nanoha, Private First Class, __Instructor__ Training School__, Mid-Childa_

_March 19, 072_

Dear Ms. Takamachi,

I hope that this letter finds you in good health. As it is not the custom of the Time and Space Administration Bureau to follow the course of actions that I am about to explain, I would hope that you will keep the details to yourself until this can be cleared through the proper channels and proposed to you in a more formal setting. More than anything, I wanted to give you a warning before I actually went ahead and proposed this plan to your superiors – for it is your decision as to whether or not you want to be involved in this mission.

As I'm sure my sister has mentioned to you, we've been noticing some unusually high power spikes from Unmonitored Planet Ninety-Seven, your home planet. We've had some difficulty successfully inserting an enforcer squad into the area as the planet's numerous languages and other cultural simplicities have made such an act very difficult.

In spite of these problems, I have proposed to some sympathetic ears that perhaps it would be better to simply insert you and my sister into Earth society once more. From what I can gather, the power spikes are concentrated around what appears to be a school not too far from where your parents live. We could very easily alter the paperwork to have you start at the beginning of the new school year, which would help to provide a good cover for you and Fate to investigate under.

I'm not sure exactly how the details would work out, but since you've been out of middle school for a year now, I'd imagine that you'd need to make excuses for yourself. I don't know exactly what that entails for you, but you might want to consider the social ramifications of such an action before you sign on for such a mission.

I wish you the best,

Admiral Chrono Harlaown

_Early April, the Warship Asura_

Takamachi Nanoha had not expected to find herself back on Earth after such a short period of time had passed since her rather abrupt departure from the planet upon her completion of middle school. The Time and Space Administration Bureau had decided that it was unwise for someone already so deeply entrenched in the military to continue her education on such a 'backwards' planet and had moved her to one of their central planets, Mid-Childa. While Nanoha understood their reasons, she was not above feeling a little let down that she was back before she'd made a name for herself as a combat and tactical instructor for the TSAB. Still, this mission was of the utmost importance, and she'd explained her parents the circumstances as best she could in the form of a video letter almost two weeks ago. She knew that it was a bad idea to be open with them about the exact details of why she'd returned to earth, but she tried to be as honest as she could. They were understanding, as they always were, about the things that Nanoha had to do in order to make her magical abilities useful to the world. Still, they were as concerned as she was about the prospect of returning to Earth.

Takamachi Nanoha was sixteen and about to start high school. She shuddered at the thought, for these were the very years where she'd known that she would be the most challenged if she stayed on Earth. She was smart and very good at doing what needed to be done in order to blend into a school environment, for she'd been doing that since elementary school; but now she was back on Earth after being away on Mid-Childa for nearly a year and she already knew that she would be hard pressed to actually manage to fit in once more.

The Lost Logia power level readings seemed to be concentrated around a school in a different neighborhood than the one where Nanoha and her childhood friends had grown up. She would have to take the train into school every day and make do with the little time allowed outside of classes to investigate. It was not something that Nanoha was particularly looking forward to.

Still, she was ready to go back to Earth. As ready as she'd ever be.

The low whirr of the Asura's engines made Nanoha sleepy as she carried the small duffle of things that she'd decided to bring back with her towards the teleportation alcove at the far end of the ship. She didn't sleep well at all on Mid-Childa, and she blamed it on the fact that she was constantly surrounded by strangers that she had trouble feeling comfortable around. She was only sixteen, which some people seemed to forget; and she had all the insecurities of a girl of that age. She just wanted to go home some times, to eat her mother's cooking and sleep in her own bed. These were things that a Combat Instructor could not feasibly do on a regular basis, she'd been enlisted in the military since she was eleven - she couldn't go home when she wanted to, and her life was dictated by an almost impossible schedule.

Still, Nanoha pressed on down the brightly lit hallways. The teleportation alcove that was used for long-range teleportation spells was located far away for a reason, as the magical power used on a good transport spell was enough to usually throw the Asura's navigation systems completely off for a good five seconds after the spell was executed. When traveling through dimensional time-space, it was better to not risk losing those precious seconds unless it was a real emergency. Still, the walk was a long way from anything worthwhile and Nanoha was glad of the few minutes alone she had been given to gather her thoughts together and start to think about putting together a story to tell Arisa and Suzuka about why she'd suddenly come back. She wouldn't see Arisa, most like, as the blond had gone to the United States for high school, to live with her relatives; but if Suzuka saw her, Nanoha had no idea what she'd say. It was just so complicated, and Nanoha hated to let anyone down.

Fate was waiting for her at the head of the final hallway that lead them back to the teleportation alcove, a sad and pensive smile on her face. It had been nearly three months since they'd seen each other, for their work kept them apart and the TSAB was not exactly known for allowing the Air and Naval forces to interact on a casual or regular basis. Nanoha had missed her friend greatly, for they talked almost daily over Bardiche and Raising Heart's telecommunications link, but it was never really the same as seeing Fate in person.

The last time that they'd seen each other had been during The Fire Festival, when they'd been granted leave during Mid-Childa's summer three week holiday. It was the dead of winter back on Earth, and Nanoha's parents had been busy with the Christmas season. Visiting then would have been far too complicated, as Nanoha had explained in a video letter that she'd sent in her place. They'd wanted her to come anyway, but Nanoha had felt as though she would have just wound up being a burden to everyone had she been there.

"Fate-chan," Nanoha said happily as she approached her friend. Fate had Bardiche's monitor mode on and was calculating the coordinates of their transport. Nanoha looked at the clock on the base of Bardiche's screen and winced. When she'd teleported onto the Asura, it had been two thirty in the afternoon, but the clock now read twenty-three forty-two. They'd be lucky to get to Earth before three in the morning at the rate they were going. Nanoha stopped just short of Bardiche's screen and smiled at Fate, "Are we cleared for departure?"

Fate nodded, "We can leave at midnight." She snapped her fingers and the screen vanished from in front of her. She paused, looking far more awkward that Nanoha remembered Fate being when the two of them were alone after not seeing each other for a long time. "It's been a long time."

Nanoha made an affirmative noise, and set down her duffle and grabbed Fate and pulled her into a hug. Fate was always so hesitant to ask for companionship and welcome after being apart for so long. They stood together like that for a few long minutes, their breath mingling as they grew once again used to being in each other's company. "I miss seeing you, Fate-chan," she said quietly into the large blond curtain of Fate's hair.

They separated, their hands still clasped. The teleportation wards had been lifted somewhere during the time that they'd been distracted with their reunion. Nanoha picked up her duffle and the small suitcase that was sitting off to one side as Fate turned her attention back to managing the high level of magic that they'd have to use in order to actually get to Earth in the first place. There was gentle pink tinge across Fate's cheeks as she worked through the data that Nanoha had not noticed a moment before and she frowned, wondering if Fate was pushing herself too hard in order to do well on this mission.

Chrono - _Admiral Harlaown_ - she corrected herself, had explained the details of their mission to them separately, as the TSAB had wanted them working for as long as possible at their current posts before they relocated to a Non-Administered planet. Nanoha had been grading papers as he'd explained just what they knew about the missing Lost Logia in question, and the fact that there could very well be civilian involvement in this case that could not be remedied the way that Fate or Hayate's situations had been fixed. They were to go to Earth and conduct their investigation under cover and hopefully return as soon as the school's summer holiday began in July. The time period gave them just under four months to get settled and complete the mission before their planned extraction.

Nanoha smiled slightly at Chrono's 'brilliant' plan for getting them out of the high school that they'd been enrolled in. Fate, who was playing the part of an international-exchange student, would simply return home over the summer and not return; perhaps citing the fact that an illness in the family made her want to stay close to home. As her records as Fate Testarossa had been completely erased, Fate had a clean slate in Japan, and therefore she could very easily create a new persona for herself while she was there.

Nanoha's case was more complicated. She was clearly Japanese and very intelligent for her age, and she could not think of a particular good excuse as to why she would have taken a year off between middle and high school. She'd tossed some ideas around in her head, but each sounded ludicrous and foolish. She couldn't logically say that her parents had asked her to stay out of school for a year to help with the coffee shop, because both her bother and sister worked there part time and her parents employed a lot of other university-aged kids to work there as well. She also couldn't really say that she'd failed the entrance exams, because that wouldn't have made any sense. Her middle school grades reflected her intelligence, and as long as she still existed in Japan, she couldn't really get away with faking her records to indicate a different cover story.

Nanoha exhaled and stepped forward, taking Fate's hand once more. "We're going to get in very early in the morning," She muttered. "I'm already tired from the three world jumps that it took to teleport here." Nanoha smirked, an idea - _a bad idea_ - hitting her. "Hey Fate-chan, can I spent the night at your apartment tonight? My parents aren't technically expecting me until tomorrow, so I don't want to just show up in the middle of the night. They might think I was a burglar or something!" She laughed, feeling suddenly awkward for what she was asking.

When they were younger, it had never felt this strange to ask for something like this.

"I'd like that," Fate said quietly. She raised her free hand and the yellow teleportation circle of magic formed under her fingers, spreading outward until it filled the entire alcove with a soft yellow glow that Nanoha had long ago started to associate with Fate's magic. While Raising Heart tended towards a brighter, pinkish glow; Bardiche and Fate seemed to favor a muted yellow color that reminded Nanoha of stormy summer nights under the glow of streetlamps. It was a nice color, something that she found herself completely at peace with.

Fate clenched her fist, channeling more power into the teleportation spell. "Bardiche," she ordered, "Long-Range Teleportation Spell, Coordinates: Alpha: 12:46:05.492, Beta: -41:01:21.03, Planet Earth Commence."

"Yes Sir," Bardiche's mechanical voice spoke as Fate unleashed her full power. The gentle yellow glow grew in intensity, filling the teleportation alcove with a blinding golden swell of magical power. Nanoha closed her eyes against the bright light and waited for the inevitable feeling of being pulled by her navel across millions and millions of light years through time and space. She hated the sensation of teleportation, but necessity had made her used to the feeling of having her insides churn as she made every effort she could to maintain her life on Earth and with the TSAB.

Nanoha squeezed Fate's hand tightly as they vanished.


	2. First Days

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Two, "First Days"

AN - There are few instances in this story where the English doesn't make much sense. This is because I've tried my best to translate awkward Japanese into English. At one point, Fate makes the mistake of saying 'the day after tomorrow' (in Japanese, asatte) instead of 'tomorrow (in Japanese, ashita). I thought that I'd clear that up, as the words are similar in Japanese but very different in English.

* * *

_TSAB Safe House, __Uminari City__ Japan__, Planet Earth_

Fate T. Harlaown awoke with a start as a hand was flung across her stomach and a pleasantly warm body snuggled up behind her. Her hands reached out, instinctively going under her pillow where the many years of working on her own and then for the TSAB had trained her to keep Bardiche hidden on the off chance that she'd be attacked while sleeping. Her fingers felt around for a few frantic seconds, before she realized that the triangular form of her intelligent device was nowhere to be found. Suddenly far more awake than she would have wanted to be, Fate opened her eyes and looked around. A quick glance told her that there was no cause for alarm, that she was safe and not in some strange place. She was lying in a bed that she had not slept in for almost a year and half, and it felt oddly nostalgic to lie in the warm peaceful bubble of her bed without worry for what the days to come would hold in store for her.

Fate allowed herself to doze for a few minutes, content to snuggle back down into the warmth of her best friend's body beside her. She knew that she shouldn't have been enjoying the proximity to Nanoha, but Fate felt as though she owed herself the indulgence, just this once. She had no idea what she was going to say to Nanoha when she woke up, because Fate knew that Nanoha liked to deny the fact that she snuggled up to the nearest heat source while sleeping, but Fate had known her long enough to simply allow such things to happen.

She could tease Nanoha about the fact that she was perhaps too friendly in sleep for either of their comfort when they were both more awake, but for now she was content to simply sit back and enjoy the warmth and companionship of sleeping with her best friend. Still, wakefulness and years of training as an enforcer forced Fate's brain into finally resuming normal activity. Her mind still fuzzy with sleep, she moved the hand off of her stomach and blinked blearily at the clock on the bedside table. It was eleven in the morning, which didn't make any sense - Bardiche would never allow her to sleep in this late, even if she'd been granted leave.

"Mnn," Fate muttered, sitting up and rubbing her head. She still felt drained from the teleportation spell the night before and it seemed that Nanoha still lacked the ability to sleep anywhere but completely on top of whomever it was that she was sharing a bed with. Fate smiled and glanced to her left, seeing Nanoha sprawled out with her mouth open and her legs tangled in with Fate's own brought a smile to her face no matter how many times Fate saw it. This had happened several times now between the two of them, and Fate still found her mind plagued with conflict every time she was in such close proximity to her best friend. She knew that she shouldn't have to feel so afraid of being around Nanoha, but there was just something about the way that her friend looked at her at times that made a warm, uncomfortable feeling spread across Fate's cheeks. She was blushing even now, looking down at the sleeping form of her best friend.

_She looks so adorable when she's asleep. So innocent._

Takamachi Nanoha was anything but innocent; Fate was one of the first to know that; she had seen the devil inside Nanoha on more than one occasion. Those eyes still haunted her dreams.

Nanoha was a truly precious person that Fate was lucky to have in her life, even if she had trouble with personal space boundaries at times, and liked to sleep with people even when the situation was far too awkward for such actions.

"Nanoha," Fate said quietly, her voice still thick with sleep. They'd arrived on Earth and the lag from crossing millions of light years in a single burst of magical energy had set in almost immediately, leaving a half-asleep Nanoha to carry her exhausted friend across town with some rather illegal magic. They'd fallen asleep as almost as soon as they'd gotten through the three levels of magical locks that Fate's mother, Lindy Harlaown, had placed on the safe house before the former admiral had formally departed from Earth almost a year ago now. As much as they'd needed the sleep, it was quite late in the morning and they had to meet up with Nanoha's family before it got too late. Fate gently poked Nanoha's cheek, trying to get the sleeping girl to wake up. "Nanoha," she tried again.

Nanoha rolled over and somehow managed to look completely dejected while still asleep. Fate frowned, this was no way to start the morning, and they both knew it. She tried one more time to rouse her friend before she started to contemplate the merits of simply leaving Nanoha to her own devices and to sort out the details of her own entrance to the school where they were to be conducting their investigation.

Nanoha could sleep in if she wanted to, really. Fate smiled and picked up Bardiche from the bedside table. "Good morning, Bardiche," she said quietly, so as not to wake Nanoha.

"Good morning sir," Came Bardiche's clipped voice. Fate tucked him into her shirt pocket and proceeded to start her morning routine. A good half an hour later she was awake and dressed with a large pot of coffee brewing and breakfast on the stove - waiting for Nanoha to wake up and join the living. Fate resolved to give her ten more minutes of sleep as she went through the limited information that Chrono's people were able to provide them with, but soon even that task was done.

Finally, Fate could stand the silence no more. She rose and moved across the room to stand by the side of the bed. Nanoha had grabbed Fate's pillow and had wrapped herself around it as something of a substitute for Fate herself. She couldn't help but smiling as she prepared herself for a real breach of conduct. As the leading investigator and an enforcer, Fate had authority over Nanoha during the course of the mission. While she would never actually consider using such a power in reality, as she and Nanoha were equals and most of the TSAB was aware of that fact. Despite the well-known team-work of Nanoha and Fate the TSAB had decided that there needed to be someone in charge of the mission. As Fate was higher ranked, she was given authority.

"Instructor Takamachi," Fate said in the most authoritative voice she could muster. "Wake up."

Nanoha sat up almost instantly. "I'm awake ma'am! I'm sorry to keep you waiting, ma'am!" She said, looking around franticly for the source of the voice that had rousted her from sleep.

Fate put her hands on her hips and smirked as Nanoha's face went from a completely serious expression to one of annoyance and then amusement. It was always so easy to read her friend's emotions by the expressions on her face.

"Mou, Fate-chan, that was mean!" Nanoha muttered, flopping back down onto the pillows.

"We need to go see your parents, Nanoha. Wake up."

Nanoha sighed loudly and sat up once more.

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_Opening Ceremony, __Shinkuru__ Academy__, April Tenth, 0930__ Earth Time_

The school's opening ceremony was starting to drag on a bit, as Nanoha sat among her new classmates and listened to the headmaster's speech about the continued importance of excellence in education despite all obstacles. Nanoha was trying to pay attention, but it was only the years of military training that the TSAB had provided her that was keeping her awake at the moment. They'd spent the past two days traveling around the city and taking power readings to see if there was a more specific pattern to the magical energy that was coming up from the school. So far, the only surge they'd seen had resulted in a general magical disturbance that was difficult to trace once it dissipated.

Still, Nanoha had to admit that she was rather enjoying being on her home planet once more. She'd been starting to really feel the desperate need to speak Japanese to someone other than the occasional video mails that she sent her family and the odd conversation that she still managed to have with Hayate. Nanoha and Fate always spoke in Mid-Childa's official language when they spoke - a reminder of the fact that Fate was originally not from Earth the way that Nanoha liked to tell herself her friend was, most of the time.

While she was technically under orders to reside with her family throughout the duration of the mission, Nanoha found herself spending many of her nights simply sleeping over at the TSAB's safe house, as it was more convenient than sneaking back into her parent's house at all hours of the night when their work was finished. On top of the fact that Nanoha had decided that she quite _liked_ sleeping with Fate in the bed with her. She didn't get as cold with Fate sleeping beside her, and Fate was always rather adorable first thing in the morning.

At least her parents had been fairly understanding about the whole situation, when Nanoha had explained whey she didn't come home many nights to her parents. They'd simply taken what she'd said to heart and not commented on it again. More than anything, it was their lack of reaction that bothered Nanoha so much. No normal parent would sit back and simply allow their child to do what she wanted at such a young age – but the injuries of Nanoha's past and the constant state of panic that her mother had lived in for much of Nanoha's time in middle school was enough, she reasoned, to make the rather routine investigation that they were conducting seem a little boring.

Despite everything, Nanoha could not remember the last time her parents had been that accepting of anything that she'd done. She wondered if it was because she was technically functioning not as their child at the moment, but as a ranked officer in an intergalactic military. Somehow, that must have made a lot of her mother's overprotective instincts vanish.

Still, Nanoha rather wished that her parents would voice more objections to her actions while she was here on Earth. She missed being treated as a child, for she'd been adult long before her time to become one. Working for the TSAB had pushed her into a very adult world very quickly, and while she rose through the ranks to be considered one of the Aces of the Air Forces, there were times when Nanoha simply wanted to enjoy being sixteen in a way that her choice of career did not allow her.

Nanoha resisted the urge to yawn once again, forcing her concentration back into the headmaster and his speech. She'd woken up at four thirty, when Bardiche had decided that it was time for Fate to wake up and go running. She'd gone with Fate for a change, and together they'd run nearly five kilometers before the time demanded that they return home to get ready for their first day of school.

Nanoha had been nervous, far more nervous than she'd been in a long time. She'd fidgeted all throughout out breakfast, leaving Fate rather exasperated with her. Nanoha had tried to apologize, but Fate's nerves were almost as shot as Nanoha's so the situation was difficult for both of them. They simply tried to keep away from stepping on each other's toes as they got ready for the day of school.

Fate had left before Nanoha for school that morning, staggering their arrival and trying to keep the fact that they knew each other to themselves until they could work out exactly what Nanoha was going to say to her classmates about why she was older than the rest of them. Fate had suggested that Nanoha simply say that she'd failed the exams and had gone to school in the same place as Fate for the time until the Japanese school year started once again in order to improve her English - the section of the exam that she'd failed. Nanoha supposed that the story would actually work; she was just embarrassed that she would have to admit that her grades in English had never been as good as she would have liked. She didn't like her records being a matter of public knowledge - and ever since that accident three years ago, Nanoha had been careful, oh so careful, to keep the details of her personal life to herself. She didn't like everyone looking at her like Fate did - like she might break at any moment.

Shinkuru Academy was one of those schools that could boast a full elementary through high school education. Many of the students there opted to simply continue their education at the school as the exams to simply continue on at the academy were far easier than those of many of the other high schools in the area. The school only allowed a few outside students into the high school class, which was the only reason that Nanoha was sticking with the story of why she was older than the rest of her classmates.

Nanoha could see Fate sitting a few rows behind her with the second years, apparently concentrating very hard on the final words of the headmaster's speech. Nanoha knew that Fate had to play the part of not understanding very much Japanese for the time being, even though her language skills were next to perfect.

The girl next to her prodded her in the side, her finger poking through Nanoha's thick blazer and causing the brunette to jump a little - startled at the sudden intrusion of her personal space. "Are you new?" The girl asked in a stage whisper. Heads swiveled back to look at the two of them and Nanoha felt a flush build across her face as she tried to shrink down into her seat.

Nanoha decided to keep her silence, staring resolutely at the aging man at the front of the auditorium. She had no interest in being rude at the moment, and she was very lucky to have checked her reflexes when the girl had first poked her. She'd been so on edge for the past few weeks, constantly in training and then looking for their current enemy that could have very easily lashed out at the girl without meaning to.

Nanoha's mouth turned downwards as the girl next to her tried again. What was it about people that sometimes made her want to take Raising Heart and blast them into submission? She supposed that she should at least answer the girl. Maybe if she ignored her after that, she'd leave Nanoha alone to play her part as the good student.

The girl asked once more if Nanoha was a new student to the school. Nanoha nodded, pointing her chin forward, trying to draw the girl's attention back to the headmaster's speech. She didn't want to appear rude, and she knew better than to directly disrespect a superior.

The girl next to her, however, didn't seem deterred by Nanoha's obvious disinterest in talking to her. Nanoha wondered where she'd learned manners, for interrupting something as important as a school's opening ceremony seemed a little excessively rude, even for the more rebellious youth of Japan. "You from around here?"

"Just down the road," Nanoha muttered. She folded her arms across her chest and shifted her attention forwards once more, determined to ignore the annoying girl beside her.

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_Second Year Classroom B, __Shinkuru __Academy, __April 10th, 1130__ Earth Time_

Fate sighed and turned her attention once more to staring out the window. She already understood what the teacher was talking about, and the constant prickling of magical energy running up the back of her neck was enough to put even her normally steady nerves on edge. She was jumpy, and bound to make poor decisions in such a state.

Still, lunch time was soon if her schedule was correct, and then she could escape up to the roof for a few short minutes and finally be able to breathe freely once more. The high amount of magical energy that lingered throughout the school was enough to press hard against Fate's chest, bringing back memories of times that were better off forgotten.

Her classmates had looked at her oddly all day, and Fate found herself fidgeting uncomfortably as they stared at her long blond hair. No one had said anything about it yet, but she knew that they were just like the children in her third grade class, full of curiosity and a want to know more about her.

Fate was glad that they thought that she didn't understand Japanese all that well. It helped to deter them from clamoring to get information out of her. As much as Fate wanted to be friendly, she couldn't help but remember that she was going to be gone in a matter of weeks – however long it took to solve this case – and she was going to simply regret getting close to anyone.

The bell tolled and the class rose and bowed to their teacher as one, before breaking for lunch. Fate pulled out the lunchbox that Nanoha had made her that morning and moved towards the door. If she was lucky, no one would notice that she was leaving.

"Um, Harlaown-san?" Fate closed her eyes; it really was too good an idea to actually be true. She turned around with the best smile she could muster on her face. One of the girls who sat a few rows up from her had stood up and was making her way through the chaos of the room as it was rearranged for people to eat lunch together. She paused just in front of Fate, a slight blush on her cheeks, "Would you like to eat lunch with us today?"

Fate shook her head, feeling bad for turning the girl down. Necessity, and the constant feeling of panic that being around this much negatively charged magical energy, forced her to turn down such a kind offer. "I'm meeting a friend for lunch," she explained. She grinned and said in the best broken Japanese that she could muster without feeling completely stupid, "Maybe the day after tomorrow?"

Fate watched as the girl tried to process what she was saying, and what she was implying through her words. Fate had just admitted that she already had a friend at the school, which, while not unheard for an exchange student, was a bit of a rarity. Still, Fate kept her smile firmly in place and waited for the girl to decide that what Fate was saying was alright in the greater scheme of things. Eventually, her frown vanished. "Harlaown-san, I think that you meant tomorrow."

Fate blushed, "Yes. Sorry, I'll excuse myself for now." She bowed slightly and left the room, walking as briskly as she could through the busy hallways towards the roof. She had to get outside and away from these people. They were making her feel awkward in a way that Fate had thought she'd finally grown out of after spending much of her childhood acting as a normal girl.

She climbed up the stairs to the roof and found that the level of negative energy seemed to dissipate as she moved upwards. The school was only four stories tall, but just moving upwards and away from the corrupted earth was enough to improve Fate's mood greatly. She pushed open the door and breathed deeply for what felt like the first time since she'd left home earlier that morning.

Nanoha was sitting on the other side of the roof, leaning against a ventilation duct and chewing thoughtfully on what looked to be a tomato as she stared off into space.

"Nanoha," Fate greeted her friend with a smile.

Nanoha looked up and grinned back. "How is pretending to be a normal girl suiting you, Enforcer Harlaown?" she asked in Mid-Childa's language. They were taking a risk speaking it, but no one from Japan would be able to understand that they were speaking any language but English. The very nature of Mid's language was that it was derived from an older form of the English language that had found its way off world with some of the first mages from Earth. Nanoha and Fate were both well aware of the differences between Mid's language and that of the English speakers on Earth, but they were both fairly certain that they could get away with faking the language as long as they didn't talk to a native English speaker. "I'm absolutely balls at it."

Fate grinned. "Badly," she admitted, sitting down. "I find that it is very difficult to concentrate when I'm constantly feeling the prickle of that extremely negative magical energy."

Nanoha nodded and leaned over to inspect Fate's lunch, her fork selecting the lone tomato that had found its way into Fate's lunchbox and stabbing it with a relish that she usually reserved for blasting her enemies with _Starlight Breaker_.

"Nanoha, I wanted to eat that," Fate protested as Nanoha grinned happily down at her stolen food. Nanoha paused, a slight blush appearing on her face as she held her fork out to Fate. Fate felt her face begin to burn as well as she allowed Nanoha to feed her, they really should not have been doing this. It was just too awkward for them to doing this, they were friends, and it was just a little too friendly for her to feel comfortable.

That didn't mean that she wasn't going to enjoy it, and she and Nanoha were both blushing very brightly by the time that they'd finished their lunch. "After school, we should start our investigation formally," Fate announced as she closed her lunch box. "We need to look at the bottom floors more closely. If anything, it seems as though the Lost Logia might be under the school."

Nanoha nodded. "From what I gathered from the other students in my class, the school had some renovations during the month long break after the end of last year. Some of the kids seemed to think that an earthquake damaged some stuff that the school keeps in the basement."

"And my hair is purple." Fate announced with a wide smile. "We need to get down there. What do you say, tonight at around eleven we come back and get a better look? That would give us about two hours before we need to go to sleep."

Nanoha laughed. "Mou… Fate-chan would look strange with purple hair." Her expression turned serious, however, as Fate could only guess she considered the merits of her proposed investigation plan. "Only four hours of sleep again, Fate-chan?" Nanoha asked. "It isn't good for you to sleep that little."

Fate felt her cheeks burn brightly once more and she looked down at her hands. She didn't have a good answer for Nanoha, and she was quite aware that Nanoha knew it. Her best friend did not approve of Fate's tendency to overwork herself, and Fate was constantly worried about Nanoha doing the same thing.

Perhaps it was better that they were working together, as they seemed to play off each other so nicely.

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_First Year Classroom A, __Shinkuru__ Academy, __April 10th, 1645__ Earth Time_

"Takamachi-san, you're new, so you might not know this. Every student who attends this school is required to join a club of some sort. Sign ups aren't technically until next week, but you should start thinking about what club you want to join." Nanoha looked up with a start from her shoe locker to see her homeroom teacher standing at the doorway to the locker room with a large smile on his face. He looked out of place in an area of the school usually reserved for students.

Nanoha blinked, unused to someone actually seeking her out to deliver advice. "Thank you for telling me," she said formally, lapsing into a style of Japanese that she hadn't used in _ages_.

Her homeroom teacher shook his head. "It's nothing," he said. "I was simply told to inform you so that you would have some time to make a decision. As a new student, it's better to play to your strengths."

Strengths, huh? Nanoha was no stranger to fighting only with the skills that she counted as among hers and hers alone. She wondered if there was some way that she could still keep her head in the clouds, even if she was firmly grounded to the earth as she conducted this investigation. "Is there an aeronautics club?" she asked after a minute.

"I'm not sure. There's a list posted on the student message board. You should look at it before you go home."

Nanoha nodded, bowing once more. "I will be sure to do that. Thank you very much."

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_Shinkuru__ Academy, __April 10th, 2257__ Earth Time_

They both felt the power spike at the same time, and the sensors that they were running off of Bardiche's computers were suddenly reading a power level that was off the charts. The warning chirp of Bardiche's sensors was running full-tilt and Fate swallowed once, and then again, just to make sure that the bile that rose up in her throat stayed down and didn't hinder her ability to speak with Nanoha now that they were going to most likely have to engage in some sort of battle with whatever it was that was creating this power spike.

Fate turned off Bardiche's monitors and held the device flat in her palm, Bardiche's shiny surface glinting in the half-light of the streetlamp they were standing under. Nanoha nodded resolutely to Fate as they got ready to go into the school once more, she help up Raising Heart and together they allowed their magical energy to channel into forming the staff forms of their devices. They would put on the barrier jackets when they were inside the school and the large flashes of magical light were less conspicuous.

"Let's go," Fate said, jumping over the high wall around the school in a single burst of magical energy. From behind her, she could hear Raising Heart's _Flyer Fin_ spell that would enable Nanoha to move as Fate did. Soon she could feel Nanoha's magical signature moving behind her as she dashed across the campus towards the one door that they'd determined to still be open after hours.

She pulled it open and almost recoiled at the stench of expired magic within the room. Someone had been doing very, very heavy stuff in this building. Nanoha's gasp as she too entered the room was enough to tell Fate that her friend was experiencing the same reaction.

Something moved to her right and Fate brought her hand up, carefully forming a shield of pure magical energy to protect herself and Nanoha as she cautiously moved forward. The stink of magic grew stronger as she moved, and her grip on Bardiche tightened as she pulled together the magical energy to form her barrier jacket. She opted for the newer one that she'd created - the one that was less about speed and more about protection. Ever since she'd redesigned her barrier jacket to be able to be faster than Signum, Fate had been having trouble with accidental injuries due to a weak defense – with Hayate's help; she managed to design a new barrier jacket that would have none of those weaknesses. Still, it felt awkward to move around in, and Fate could move nowhere near as fast with it on. Usually she just powered up to one of her armor's different forms if she was feeling the need to move more quickly.

From behind her, she could hear Nanoha shoving a clip into Raising Heart's cartridge chamber. She stood at the ready, her eyes darting right and left as she searched for the being that was behind the extreme magical power that she was sensing.

"Sir," Bardiche said, suddenly swinging in her hands to point down a long hallway. It seemed as though the tracker spell that she'd cast when they'd first begun their investigation had activated, and Bardiche's computers were tracking the magical signature that they'd first detected on Earth. With a nod to Nanoha, who held Raising Heart at the ready, Fate dashed down the hallway, heading down several flights of stairs into the dark recesses of the school building. \

The smell was worse down here, and there was something else mixed in with it, the smell of decay and of death. Fate frowned and looked around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary for a high school basement relaxed her grip on Bardiche.

A few quick inquiries on her device's monitors and Fate confirmed that Bardiche's sensors were not picking up anything besides the spent magical energy any more. It seemed as though whatever they'd picked up had vanished.

"Protection!" Fate spun to see something large and dark rushing towards her from the shadows, only to slam against a wall of pale pink energy.

"What is that?" Nanoha asked, moving to stand beside Fate and watching with wide eyes as the creature rose up once more. Fate felt her stomach churn as she looked at it, and she was glad that she hadn't eaten much at dinner with Nanoha's parents earlier. The sight of this, this _monster_ was enough to bring her to vomiting.

It moved quickly, even if it had an awkward gait, banging up against Nanoha and Fate's combined shields as it looked for a weakness. As it stepped into the light from the stairwell, Fate's eyes widened. This creature looked like something out of _Night of the Living Dead_, with large portions of its humanoid body missing and its head partly gone – as though it had been blasted off.

Fate found her hand reaching for Nanoha's and she grasped it tightly for one long second that seemed like an eternity, before pushing the shields down and lashing out with a well-placed _Scythe Slash_ that successfully removed one of the creature's arms. The limb fell to the ground with a sickening thump that Fate prayed that she would never have to hear again. Dark-colored magical energy seeped from the wound on the creature and Fate grit her teeth, holding Bardiche at the ready. Two cartridges loaded themselves into Bardiche and Fate felt the compressed magic swell around her.

"It's still going!" Nanoha shouted - a halo of pinkish-colored spheres around her. With a gesture, they shot off in opposite directions. _Axel Shooter._

Fate dodged around another attack by the one armed monster and started the strongest bind spell that she knew, intent on holding it until Nanoha's bullets could hit the monster. She struggled to maintain her grip on the bind even as the monster surged with incredible strength against her. Nanoha's bullets hit one after another, completely destroying most of the creature and leaving only unrecognizable piles of gore in its wake.

Fate stood up, panting, "Did we get it?"

"I think so." Nanoha's magical power was flickering around her as she crackled with energy. Fate wondered just how powerful those bullets that she'd used as crossfire had been.


	3. Face to Name

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Three, "Face to Name"

AN - I have a confession to make, this is the most planned out story that I've ever written. Basically what that means is that _every detail_ of the plot is already written down and all that I'm doing is fleshing out the story when I write it down based on those bullet points. A lot of you were commenting on the lack of Yuuno, Arf, Hayate and her knights; and I have to point out that at this point in Nanoha canon, Hayate's trying to make her dream come true and is laying the ground work for Section Six - along with the help of her knights. She doesn't really have the time to go on a mission to Earth and kill magical zombies. As fun as that would be, lol, no. Yuuno and Arf will show up in time, to serve as complications to an already complicated romance that's brewing between Nanoha and Fate.

also - I was shocked at how many people commented on the 'purple hair' thing. I was not making a statement about Nanoha canon, or the ... slightly alien hair colors of the story, or any anime for that matter, just commenting that _Fate's hair isn't purple and it would be weird if it was._

Thanks to Joukai for pointing out the errors.

* * *

_Shinkuru __Academy__, April 13th, __23:45__ Earth Time_

This was the third group of them that they'd found on the school grounds in nearly an hour. Takamachi Nanoha ground her teeth so as not to gag as she tried to ignore the foul stench that rose from these things and concentrate on the battle at hand. They were fast, and seemed fairly intelligent when one looked past the fact that they showed up on most scanners as simply reanimated corpses. Who would have thought that the Lost Logia that they'd been tracking would have the power to reanimate the dead? The very idea seemed to alien in Nanoha's mind that she almost wanted to add her own attachment to the official report that Fate was sending Chrono later in the week saying that no; they hadn't been staying up late at night watching American zombie movies. She knew that Chrono was an experienced Admiral now, and that he would be able to take something like this purely on face value and not look into the possible Earth-humor that might be attached to something like this.

Perhaps humor was better kept outside of the battlefield, Nanoha mused, setting her stance forward once more and forcing more power into the shields that she'd erected around herself and Fate as she worked out the best way to fire Axel Shooter to do the maximum amount of damage to these creatures. She had two choices here, for they were both tired and they still had work to do for class in the morning. Nanoha figured that the best idea was to send a few of the extra bullets from Axel Shooter off into the darker parts of the school to make sure that they hadn't missed any of these monsters.

Nanoha frowned, knowing that Fate would not approve of her powering up enough to actually destroy any additional foes with a spell as low level spell as Axel Shooter. Fate was always careful, so careful; to make sure that Nanoha never really strained herself in battle. After the accident three years ago, Nanoha had sworn that she would regain her abilities fully, and Fate still didn't believe that Nanoha was at her best. She didn't have the heart to tell her friend that she didn't want to be treated as a doll that would touch as soon as she was handled roughly.

In truth, Nanoha rather liked Fate's protectiveness of her person. It was very gallant, and it suited Fate's personality well.

Still, Nanoha popped three cartridges through Raising Heart's system in rapid succession and allowed the familiar rush of power to fill her as she began to concentrate on collecting power so as to actually be able to accomplish what she wanted to do with Axel Shooter.

Fate moved forward and out of the shielding circle, popping several cartridges - she'd have to reload soon - and powering Bardiche up to Zamber Form. They'd been avoiding the melee battles for fear of damaging the school, but Nanoha knew from the way that Fate was holding Bardiche that she'd had just about enough of these pointless battles.

"Axel Shooter," Nanoha said, holding out her hands and forming twenty perfectly spherical orbs of magical energy. They would move at her command, scanning the rest of the school for any more of their foes and taking them out quickly and efficiently before they left for the night. Nanoha sent ten of the spheres off in search of any more of the creatures that they might have missed and concentrated the rest on providing Fate with some cover fire as she surged forward across the school's gymnasium.

Fate severed the head of the first creature, Nanoha watching with wide eyes as its head fell to the floor and splattered all manner of pale green colored innards across the centerline of the basketball court. The body of the first creature didn't have enough time to fall to the ground before Bardiche's blade slashed through the next one, cutting it down and leaving a trail of globular black blood as Fate moved around the three point line, slowly honing in on her final foe.

This creature was a particularly horrid one, its arms ending with stumps just below the elbow, pure white bone jutting out from it's sallow and blood covered skin where the arms should have continued on into hands. It walked with a limp and dragged what appeared to be a large portion of the lower part of its right leg behind it, making a sick scraping sound of bone on wood as it made its way across the basketball court.

Nanoha watched as Fate popped another cartridge into Bardiche and swallowed. Fate was using more of them than usual and it concerned her because the after-effects of using such compressed magical power so often were not well known to the TSAB's doctors, as the old Balka methods of magic were only now being reexamined to determine their usefulness in a modern society such as Mid-Childa's. She held the Axel Shooter bullets that she'd sent to cover Fate steady and waited, knowing that Fate was biding her time until the creature moved close enough to be cut down with no effort by Bardiche's Zamber form.

The creature lurched forward suddenly and Nanoha could hear Fate's sharp intake of breath as she activated a _sonic move_ to dodge around the sudden slashing of teeth and fragmented bone of the creature. Nanoha flicked her finger and sent the Axel Shooter bullets into the creature. They buried themselves into the soft tissue of the creature and exploded, one after another, so that there was nothing left of it but a black smear on the floor.

"Thanks," Fate grunted, allowing Bardiche to power down to his normal staff form. She turned and smiled at Nanoha, a slight trail of blood running down her hairline and across her cheek from where she'd gotten hit on the head earlier in the evening when they'd been running through the basement trying to round up as many of the creatures as they could.

They came out during the late hours of the night, long after even the most dedicated of students left their club activities for home. Their dark forms moving through the school building only to sink back into the ground once dawn arrived once more. Nanoha did not like calling them magical zombies, but that was really what they were. Creatures of negative magic and the long dead human bodies – reanimated with magical powers the likes of which that Fate and Nanoha, not to mention the rest of the TSAB had ever heart of before.

There were two things that magic could not do, and one of them was to bring back the dead. Fate and Nanoha were working on a theory as to how they could actually be fighting an enemy that seemed to already be dead, but they'd already decided that these creatures were just a byproduct of the magic of the Lost Logia that they were tracking. Nanoha had no idea how they were going to find their actual foe if they spent all of their time hunting down the byproducts of the magic it was using. Fate agreed with her, to some extent, and yet they found themselves back here every night cutting through the creatures that were the stuff of nightmares.

Nanoha allowed the wandering Axel Shooter bullets to dissolve into nothing, a waste of magical energy, yes, but still something that needed to be done. The scans had found nothing, after all. She dropped her barrier jacket and sighed, allowing Raising Heart to return to her marble form. "There were more than usual tonight," she yawned. She stretched her arms upward and wondered how much more homework they would have to do once they got back to Fate's apartment.

Fate nodded, touching her head gingerly and wincing. "A lot more of them," she agreed. "We need to figure out why they're multiplying and regenerating more quickly."

"Sir, that is because the object that you are tracking is far more active now than it was before," Bardiche explained from Fate's palm as Nanoha's friend returned to her normal clothes as well.

Nanoha nodded her agreement. They were not going to learn any more here tonight, that much was obvious, so all she wanted to do was go home and scrub any remnant of these creatures off of her skin. She wanted to curl up in bed with Fate and be able to find enough content thoughts to allow herself the few hours of sleep she could catch before they had to wake up and do it all again.

She crossed to Fate's side and tilted her friend's head into the light, inspecting her wound and tutting at it. It was shallow, but full of dirt – it needed to be cleaned up and bandaged or it was going to get infected. "Let's go get that cleaned up, ne, Fate-chan?"

Fate smiled weakly at her. "I'll be faster next time, Nanoha, so you won't worry."

Nanoha laughed, for she didn't think that Fate being any faster would have stopped her from getting blindsided in a narrow corner and running into a pole. Still, she was happy to take care of Fate. They'd made a promise a long time ago to do that until they took their last breaths, and Nanoha intended to keep up her end of the bargain.

She slung an arm around Fate's shoulder and grinned brightly at her best friend. "I'll help you with your literature assignment once we get you patched up," Nanoha promised. Being a native to another world, Fate sometimes had trouble reading the more complicated texts that second year students at Shinkuru Academy were expected to have at least an understanding of before they moved on to the next year. Fate didn't remember all of the kanji that she'd learned in middle school – her mind's language capacity was instead occupied by the old Balkan language that she'd been learning from Signum and the rest of Hayate's knights and the many dialects of the TSAB's multi-lingual bureaucracy. Nanoha had taken it upon herself to help Fate out as best she could – considering that being away from Japan for only a year had already started to push her own comprehension of her native tongue out of her mind completely.

"Alright," Fate agreed, a slight blush appearing across her cheeks as she leaned into Nanoha. It was strange, the blushes were becoming more and more frequent these days. Nanoha had no idea how to handle them, considering how cute Fate looked when she was unsure of herself, they were just something new and adorable that Fate did. Another endearing quality that made Nanoha wonder if perhaps she really was right about her initial assumptions about Fate all those years ago.

She'd been the first one to show that little girl love of any sort.

_Perhaps,_ Nanoha mused, _perhaps it is fitting that I be the one to give her her first kiss as well._

The gods only knew that Nanoha didn't want anyone _else_ to do it.

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_Aeronautics Club, __Shinkuru__ Academy__, __April 15th, 1630__ Earth Time_

_The kids are alright_, Nanoha decided, leaning back in her chair and listening to them ramble on about various airplanes that they'd seen in their lives. They were mostly older than her, and of the more nerdy variety that reminded Nanoha perhaps a little too much of many of the Bureau's support staff that found their way onto the Navy's ships and into the great sea of the universe. Since this was only technically their second meeting as a formal club, the boys who ran the club were trying to figure out what they could do with their minimal club budget. They'd already decided that without bringing the engineering club on board, that they were not likely to be able to build the lighter-than-air-craft that they all dreamed of someday perfecting for a public market – but they were thinking that perhaps there could be something _like_ that that they could do.

Nanoha had suggested that they look into alternative fuels – as real fuel was far too expensive for their limited budget - and maybe make a few models of the craft that they wanted to build. They'd dismissed her idea as foolish at first, but they were slowly arguing themselves back to the point where she'd suggested her initial idea.

She leaned back in her chair, tilting it so that it rested on only two legs, with her back pressed against the wall of the classroom that they had taken over for the purpose of club meetings. She was exhausted, but last night they'd been granted a reprieve from their nightly fights against the – she shuddered – _zombies_ when both she and Fate had realized that there were none present in the school that night. It was as though the magical energy had completely run out of the place.

They'd taken advantage of the break and gotten a full night's sleep – Nanoha returning home to sleep at her parent's house for the first time in well over a week. She missed sleeping with someone else in the bed, she'd discovered, and had woken up clinging to her pillow in such a way that told her that she was going to need to do something about her sudden need to cling to someone – _Fate_ – in her sleep as of late. The conversation was going to be awkward, but Nanoha knew that she'd need to do it sooner rather than later.

When she'd gotten to school, however, her cheerful mood at actually getting sleep for once had shattered, as the entire building seemed ooze magical energy in a way that it had never done before. Raising Heart, normally silent during the day, had chosen to comment on it – and Nanoha had been in complete agreement with her intelligent device's assumption that something bad had happened while they were taking advantage of a lull in the action. It seemed that their foe knew about their nightly ventures though the school, and had figured out a way to counter the extreme about of magical energy it was releasing on a regular basis.

Nanoha shoved her hands into her blazer's pockets, her fingers running over the emergency sealing round that she carried everywhere with her. Hayate had made it for her before she'd left on the mission, packing a positively insane amount of magical energy into it so that Nanoha could actually seal this rogue Lost Logia when she and Fate encountered it. Nanoha just hoped that it would be enough, considering the power of this relic that they'd encountered already, it seemed as though they really had no idea how powerful a creature they were going to encounter.

The door to the classroom opened and a shy-looking boy with messy dark hair stuck his head in. Nanoha thought that he looked lost, so she let her chair fall forward once more and smiled brightly at him as the rest of the club continued their argument without seeming to notice the newcomer.

_Be careful, my master._ Raising Heart's voice rang a warning into Nanoha's mind. There was something new and different in the room – the same sort of magical signature that Nanoha had grown accustomed to being present throughout the school – only this time more powerful and concentrated than Nanoha had ever sensed.

Nanoha exhaled quietly and tried not to allow the quizzical on her face to show, but she knew that she was failing rather miserably. Fate had always told her that she couldn't lie worth her skin and her face was one of the most expressive that she'd ever seen. Nanoha had been working to change that, for she knew that it would not do well to be so easily read by her enemies.

_What is it?_ Nanoha asked her device as her eyes darted around the room, trying to figure out the source of the sudden rise of magical energy in the room. It couldn't be the boy who was now standing just to the left of the club president, trying to get the boy's attention. He was far too meek and when Nanoha looked directly at him she didn't sense anything at all. It was as though he didn't exist.

_My master, I sense the magical signature that I have been instructed to search for very strongly in this room,_ Raising Heart replied. _Only, I cannot pinpoint a location. I am sorry, my master._

_Don't worry_, Nanoha smiled, and coughed loudly. The entire room was suddenly silent as the boys looked at her as though she had six heads. "Club President," she said, gesturing to him, "You have a visitor."

He blinked and spun around the face the shy-looking boy, who was looking as though he wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor and vanish forever. Nanoha supposed that putting him on the spot like that wasn't the best idea that she'd ever had, but she couldn't help but think that the apparent rudeness of her fellow club members was somehow a reflection on her person. She wouldn't stand for such a reputation, and with the room now silent, she could concentrate on the more complex and powerful scan of the surrounding area that Raising Heart was explaining to her.

_If the relic was here, it has masked itself so cleverly that we can no longer track it at all. Cloaked in the shadow of all the magic that's lingering around this place, _Nanoha mused as the club president and the rest of the boys in the room made space for the new boy in their circle, _tricky._

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_First Year Classroom A, __Shinkuru __Academy__, __April 17th, 1324__ Earth Time_

The class was winding to a close, and the teacher had just sprung a pop quiz on the entire class based on what they'd learned in the last week. Nanoha had groaned along with the rest of them and had filled out the answers to the best of her ability. She had always been very good at math, and her understanding of something as universal as the numbers they were working with was making this class seem very easy. She answered the three questions on a sheet of paper and made her way up to the front of the class room to hand her answer sheet in. She was the first one done, and she felt a little self-conscious about having finished the test so much faster than the rest of her classmates.

Still, she handed in her paper and went back to her seat, intent on starting to put together the status report to Admiral Harlaown that she was supposed to submit within the next two days or so. She already knew what she was going to say, for the most part, and it was her turn to fill out the paperwork – as Fate had a test coming up tomorrow and she was going to be busy studying for that.

Nanoha felt her nose twitch and she brought her finger up to rub it. The magical energy that seemed to infuse every room in this school was enough to make her already sharp magical senses even more on edge. Her nose would always start to feel a little as though she had to sneeze whenever she was around such high levels of magical energy for prolonged periods of time. On Mid-Childa she'd gotten used to it, as there were limiters and dampers on most of the high-powered magical devices that ran constantly in the background to power the TSAB's internal bureaucracy. It was just _strange_ really, to have so much magical power concentrated in a place where Nanoha was not used to feeling any magic save for magical signatures that she recognized.

Fate had been on edge since they'd started at this school, and while Fate was never specific about why the magical energy bothered her so much, Nanoha was sure it was because it reminded Fate of a time in her life when she'd been constantly surrounded by magic just like this. Her mother, her real mother, had been a great mage – but one that had dabbled into dark magic that should have been best left alone.

Her nose twitched once more, and Nanoha barely had time to cover her mouth and nose before the sneeze came out. She flushed brightly as many of her classmate's heads swiveled around to look at her. She hated it when that happened.

Rummaging in her blazer pocket, Nanoha pulled out her handkerchief and shook it out without thinking.

The sound of metal hitting the classroom's tile floor was completely lost on her as she sneezed once more.

After the pop quiz was over and the teacher had left the classroom, Nanoha found herself face to face with the boy who sat in front of her. Toei was his name, if she remembered correctly. "You dropped this," he said with a rather sinister looking smile, setting Nanoha's emergency sealing cartridge on the corner of her desk.

Nanoha felt her blood run cold. This was very, very bad. They couldn't find out about why she was there, and that cartridge was a sure-fire way of announcing to the world that she didn't belong in this high school – or anywhere on Earth, really. She clenched her fist around her handkerchief and picked it up, smiling as brightly as she could manage. "Thank you, Toei-san. I was worried that I'd lost it."

She knew that she was doing a poor job keeping the panic off of her face, but she would protect the integrity of this mission no matter what.

"What is it, Takamachi? It looks like a bullet." Toei asked, raising an eyebrow at her. The rest of the class was eyeing their conversation with some suspicion, as Nanoha was a new student who had yet to really get to know her classmates.

"I-It's a good luck charm." Nanoha explained, her voice faltering. She rubbed her hand over the back of her neck, feeling as though awkward did not even begin to cover this situation. Fate was going to murder her if she got caught in this lie – it had to be flawless. "I got it in Am-America."

"_What _is a good luck charm, Takamachi?" The harsh female voice of their modern Japanese teacher cut through Nanoha's panicked explanation as to why it was, exactly, that she had what would appear to the untrained eye as a _bullet _in her pocket.

Nanoha looked up to see her teacher reaching down to pick up the cartridge, _Shit._

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_Second Year Classroom B, __Shinkuru __Academy__, __April 17th, 1600__._

Fate closed her school bag with a sigh, grateful that she didn't have any club obligations for the evening. She had a test tomorrow and as much as she wanted to say that she was here on Earth for a mission and nothing more, she was not going to let her reputation as a scholar and a student be marred by the fact that she still had trouble reading some of the Kanji in the texts she was supposed to be able to read for class. Nanoha was proving to be a great resource for her studying, but Fate still wanted to prove that she could do this herself.

She slung her bag over her shoulder and headed towards the door. Her classmates were growing used to her presence now, and they were being far nicer to her than they'd been during the first few days of class – allowing her to join in their conversations and participate in the classroom politics that had so mystified her in the past. She was not _friends_ with any of the class exactly, but she did have a few people that she was willing to eat lunch with when Nanoha was busy pretending to actually like her classmates. Apparently, they were quite the rude bunch of kids.

Fate sighed and started to open the door when it slid open, jerking her hand free of the handle. She stepped back, and found herself face to face with a very nervous-looking Nanoha.

"Hi," Fate said, blinking as Nanoha pushed her back into the classroom and closed the door behind her. There were a few people still in the room, but they were busy laughing about some foolish joke that one of the boys had just made. The expression on Nanoha's face was enough to set Fate on edge once more, and she wasn't sure what to say. Nothing seemed like too little, but Nanoha was obviously sitting on something big – something that she needed to get out of her system. "Nanoha, what's wrong."

"Fate-chan," Nanoha said, looking down at the floor. "What would you do if I told you that I might have… er…" she switched into Mid-Childa's language and said in a hushed voice, "_blown our cover."_

Fate blinked, and then moved faster than she'd moved in a long time, grabbing Nanoha's elbow and pulling her out of the classroom and down the hallway to a storage cupboard where they kept the cleaning supplies. The whole act of getting Nanoha out of sight had taken less than a minute to complete, and now they were standing very much in each other's personal space, breathing heavily and exchanging shooting glares.

"What do you mean, blown our cover?" Fate demanded. She didn't understand how that could have happened. Nanoha was the perfect soldier, careful and deliberate in her actions. There was no way that she would have let something slip unless she'd done it unintentionally.

Nanoha looked away, not meeting Fate's eyes. Her hair was falling into her eyes and she looked scared. Fate bent, trying to get Nanoha to meet her gaze once more. "Look," Fate tried again, "It can't have been that bad."

"Oh it's bad." Nanoha laughed shakily. "And on top of that, I've lost my SSS+ sealing round that Hayate made me."

Fate's eyes widened, "What?" They were going to need that, the current outlook on their foe say that they would definitely need several high level sealing rounds to even have a chance at stopping the Lost Logia; and for Nanoha to lose something so important was just irresponsible. Fate tried to keep the frown off her face as she tried to figure out what exactly Nanoha could have done to make such a situation come about.

"It fell out of my pocket and a classmate returned it to me." Nanoha spoke quickly and directly, as if she was actually speaking to her direct superior and not her best friend. Fate hated the fact that Nanoha had reverted to that sort of behavior while explaining the situation to her, but she understood why Nanoha was doing it. Distancing herself and their friendship from the facts so that Fate would be forced to look at what happened objectively – and not with the bias of a best friend. "While it would have been alright, I explained the cartridge's presence really well, my absolute witch of a modern Japanese teacher came in just as I was explaining it and dragged me out in front of the headmaster and demanded that I explain myself once more." Nanoha smiled guiltily at Fate. "You know me, Fate-chan; I'm really bad at lying under pressure. While I could fake it for my classmates, I couldn't, not really, sell my story to the principal. I've been placed on academic probation until such a time as they can clear my name, and I'm subject to random searches by the staff for weapons."

Fate clenched her fist. This was bad, very bad. Fate knew that she couldn't carry on the mission of Nanoha's cover was blown. She needed Nanoha as support and it just wouldn't be as _fun_ if Nanoha wasn't there. Fate couldn't see any way to get them out of this situation, and it frankly made her angry. She hated the fact that she was going to have to somehow explain this to Chrono and her other superiors, as the blame would fall to her and not Nanoha's blunder. Fate closed her eyes and tried not to tighten her already clenched fist, but she could already feel the hand trembling ever so slightly as she resisted the urge to swear loudly and punch the wall.

Nanoha would not understand her anger, and think that it was directed at her. Fate couldn't be angry at her best friend, for one look at the apologetic smile on the other girl's face was enough to send Fate's heart aflutter and off into directions that were simply not fitting of the time or the situation. She had to be firm, and seem angry at Nanoha, at least for a little while – even if hurt her. "I would say that it's alright as you had no control over what happened, Nanoha, but you did jeopardize this mission, Nanoha. We can't fix this – and what happens if you have anything related to the Bureau on you at the time of one of these 'searches.' This mission is complex enough as it is, we can't risk them finding out about your connections to the Bureau." Her words were cutting, but to the point. Fate knew that Nanoha would not see beyond them at the moment, to Fate's own fears about being alone on such an assignment. They couldn't let this get out of their hands, for it was very likely that anyone else in their place would royally screw up the carefully constructed aliases that they'd worked so hard to maintain.

"I should resign from the mission." Nanoha said quietly. Fate clenched her fist even tighter, for she could not reach out and comfort Nanoha. She had to play the part of the aloof superior officer for the time.

"Perhaps, but for now, let's just wait and see what Chrono has to say." Fate ground out. She didn't feel the anger that she'd managed to put behind the words she said.

"Alright." Nanoha replied in Japanese, the language easily switching over as she pushed open the door to the closet and tried to make herself look presentable. Fate reached out and tugged her friend's tie back into place, straightening it and tucking it back under her blazer. Why Nanoha wasn't using a tiepin was completely beyond her – since having a loose tie made one very open to being dragged around by it.

"Still, Nanoha, what possessed you to carry such a thing in your pocket?" Fate asked after a moment, they walked through the halls of the school, slowly leaving the magically polluted area of the school building and heading towards the shoe lockers. Already there were whispers of students in the hallway, commenting on their strange friendship and the fact that Nanoha had been caught with some sort of weapon on school grounds.

"I didn't want to risk not having it on my person at any time." Nanoha explained simply, fetching her regular shoes from her shoe locker. Fate glared at some of the whispering first year students just down the row of lockers from them and folded her arms in what she hoped was a menacing way.

Fate's glare, or the completion of their task – she wasn't sure – made the girls leave a few second later and Fate leaned across Nanoha to take her own shoes out of their locker. "Still, you can't deny that doing that was foolish," she said. Their hands brushing against each other's as Fate pulled off her school shoes. Fate felt her cheeks burn as she did so – and she suddenly knew that all was forgiven, as Nanoha was smiling as brightly at her as she'd ever done.

"I'm sorry Fate-chan." Nanoha said one more time as they left the school

Fate shook her head. "Let's see the damage before we decide if I should be mad at you or not."

Nanoha grinned, "Alright."

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_Over the City of __Uminari__, __April 20th, 0127__ Earth Time_

Fate flew at top speed across the city, looking for where the signal that they'd picked up a few hours ago was originating from. It seemed like a distress call using one of the older TSAB encoding systems, but there was something different about it, which was why they'd been asked by Chrono to clear it before the Asura came into take a better look and potentially run an extraction.

So far it seemed as though the code was simply being run by someone without their knowledge, as neither Bardiche nor Raising Heart could pick up anything resembling the TSAB's signal anywhere but from themselves and the Asura. It simply didn't make sense.

Fate sighed and turned in mid air, heading back towards the ground in the park where she and Nanoha were going to meet when they finished their sweeps of the city. She wasn't going to find anything – having already been over the city three times with a fine toothed comb – and she was exhausted. She praised the fact that it was a Saturday night, so that she could sleep in the following morning, for Fate was positive that she needed to recuperate from all the late nights that she'd been pulling lately.

She was starting to lag during the day, and her teachers were noticing. She'd been pulled aside in class twice yesterday and asked if she was getting along alright in this new country. She'd smiled at both teachers and said that she was simply having trouble sleeping due to her allergies and that she had an appointment with a doctor over the weekend to see about maybe getting some medicine for her allergies.

Still, Fate was worried. Nanoha had been searched twice for weapons since the incident with her sealing cartridge and Fate was worried that somehow her friend was getting herself into more trouble than it was worth, as the faculty of the school seemed to be convinced that Nanoha was some sort of delinquent, even though nothing in her records seemed to suggest that. It made Fate angry how little faith they had in Nanoha, as she was a very good student and she'd simply been carrying something on her that she shouldn't have been. Half the kids in her classes carried some sort of knife or mace for protection when they walked through the city at night – yet no one seemed to question them when they played with them in class.

It was just unfair, really.

Fate powered down to her civilian clothing twenty feet in the air above the park and slowly continued her downward path through the trees onto the ground. She didn't want to be wearing her barrier jacket when she walked among civilians if she could avoid it –even if they did think she was some sort of cosplayer or something. It was just in poor taste to risk her cover like that.

Suddenly a beam of pure black energy hit her full on in the back, sending her flying forward into a tree. Fate screamed as she felt two more hit her in quick succession. Bardiche had not even had time to put up a shield and now it seemed as though Fate lacked the magical energy to support one.

She hissed in pain as she tried to right herself, holding Bardiche unsteadily in front of her as she grit her teeth and looked around for her attacker.

"Who's there?!" she shouted into the darkness.

"You are the ones who have been interfering with my plans." A male voice spoke from the darkness. "Disappear."

A blood red bolt of energy shot forward from the tree line and Fate could hardly maintain her shields at all. It was as though something was sucking all of the magical energy out of her – making it so that she could not use magic at all. She didn't know how someone could block magic like that – they had technology to do that on Mid-Childa, but for it to be on Earth had very dangerous repercussions indeed. She wasn't sure that she could continue fighting at this rate, and as Bardiche's shields crumbled around her, Fate closed her eyes and simply took the attack. It wasn't powerful enough to kill her, or even injure her, she realized. Just stop her from attacking and discovering her opponent's identity.

Fate frowned and allowed it to seem as though she'd passed out, leaning against the tree and not moving.

_Nanoha_, she said through their mental link_, I think we have a problem._


	4. Complications

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Four, "Complications"

AN - This chapter was harder than I thought it would be to write, but now that I've got it out, I'm really happy with it. You guys all seem to really like this story, so it makes me happy. And now we have an enemy, to some extent, and some serious drama. Plus Yuuno and Arf to make everything better.

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_Admiral's Quarters, The Warship Asura, __April 23rd, 1854__ Earth Time_

Admiral Chrono Harlaown was not used to seeing his sister in the state that she'd been in since her first reported encounter with the Lost Logia infected human three days ago. She was frantic, desperate to get the details fleshed out on how exactly he'd been able to clone an Anti-Magical-Field so well and how he'd managed to nearly launch a very successful attack on her linker core without her even noticing. Fate was afraid that Nanoha would have to encounter this mage at some point and risk losing her already fragile health once again. It was a concern that Chrono himself shared with her, but he would probably not go as far as Fate would when it came to protecting Takamachi Nanoha. The girl was _more_ than capable of protecting herself, and Chrono had sworn long ago that he would never end up on the bad side of that little girl from Earth.

_I value my skin far too much to involve myself in the precarious politics of Fate and Nanoha's relationship,_ Chrono mused, bridging his fingers and resting his chin on them. He smiled one of those private smiles that he kept locked away most of the time – the ones that he reserved for his family and his beloved wife, and clicked through the next page of his adopted sister's report. _Still, it is really adorable that Fate cares so much for Nanoha. I wonder if Nanoha returns the sentiment?_

Chrono's musings were cut short by the next page of data that he had pulled up; a live feed of video as recorded by Bardiche, showing how quickly his sister had gone down in that fight – even if she'd been faking it to save her own skin. The text on the bottom of the screen detailed the past few days' events according to Fate's very careful and impartial observations.

Chrono leaned forward, this was bad. Nanoha had somehow gotten caught with the only high-leveled sealing round that the team had brought in with them; and had had it confiscated by the school. The consequences of that action were not something that Chrono felt that he had to enforce, as it sounded as though the mission could still run smoothly, if a little bit uncomfortably from their end. That being said, however, the loss of the sealing round was a problem, as the only way for either Fate or Nanoha to power up enough to seal a relic of the sort of power that was in question for this mission was to go through far more cartridges than was healthy. He would have to try and get Yagami Hayate to create another SSS+ level round and somehow send it to Fate and Nanoha before they confronted their enemy again.

With the rate of confrontation, however, that was not an option. Chrono frowned as he stared at the screen before him; there was something oddly unsettling about this case – the way that the magic was structured seemed to suggest that the level of evil that the Lost Logia they were searching for was for more evil than they'd originally thought.

Chrono could see the blood red magic that had attacked Fate clearly on the screen, cutting through the relative darkness of his office as though he were actually standing beside his sister. For magic to be that color meant a corruption in heart, something that could not be easily repaired – if it could be fixed at all. Chrono frowned, knowing that his sister and her best friend had no frame of reference for how to handle something like this. They were innocent, mostly, and would not be able to accept the harsh reality of what the easiest course of action was when it came to taking care of these sorts of enemies was. Killing was not wired into these girls yet.

Chrono pushed his chair away from his desk and walked away from the glowing monitor, trying to drive the color of the magic out of his mind. He couldn't bear to see his sister in such danger, but he knew that she was strong enough to handle it. She was a big girl with powerful allies and a skill in magic that Chrono had not seen in many of the TSAB's employees. Chrono still liked to think that he could protect her from the world, as he was her older brother and that was his part to play in the grand scheme of things, but he knew that it was getting to the point where he had to start to let go of Fate and let her grow up on her own.

Gesturing in the air, he pulled up another screen and spoke quietly into it, requesting a long range telecom communication with one Yuuno Scrya, librarian to the TSAB's massive collection of books within the Infinite Library. His request was granted and Chrono waited patiently for the link to be established.

After a few minutes of waiting, Yuuno's bespectacled face appeared on the screen. "Ah, Admiral Harlaown!" he exclaimed, looking happy to see Chrono. "What can I do for you?"

Chrono leaned forward and grinned, "Well, Ferret-boy, I need you to take some time off."

Yuuno balked, looking suddenly indignant and a little angry. "Don't call me that!" he protested.

"Then call me Chrono, we've been friends for close to eight years now – you'd think that calling me by my name would be easier for you." Chrono grinned. "Admiral Harlaown is my mother." It wasn't really true, as Lindy Harlaown had mostly retired from the public eye at this point, but Chrono was still trying to find his 'sea legs' when it came to functioning as an admiral and constantly being reminded that he was carrying on his mother and father's legacies was never something that he appreciated.

"Alright, Chrono." Yuuno pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at Chrono seriously. "What's going on?"

Chrono explained in short, almost coded sentences his fears for the mission that Fate and Nanoha were on. They were going to need a support mage sooner rather than later and Chrono could not spare anyone on his ship at the moment. Chrono didn't go into the details of how being a new admiral with someone such as his mother's reputation to live up to did little to bolster his standing in the long waiting lists for Bureau-trained mages to assist in the missions that he was charged with carrying out. He'd had to jump though so many hoops just to ensure that Nanoha would be allowed to help Fate out on this mission and he didn't want to risk ruining his reputation again so quickly. Yuuno was a civilian collaborator, and one that Chrono could simply pass off as simply 'being there' in his official reports on the situation. Besides, he knew that with Yuuno would come Arf, and Arf was a force to be reckoned with when she was fighting in close proximity to Fate. He wanted his sister to have back up, but he could not actually appear to favor his sister as the potential fall-out of that action would be far more than either of their careers could handle at the moment.

"I want to you to go to Earth and help Fate and Nanoha out," Chrono explained quietly. He glanced towards his desk and the video that was still playing on the computer screen there. "I'm worried about this mission. I think that it might become a lot harder than we've anticipated for those girls to actually succeed."

Yuuno nodded, silent in his consent to do whatever it took to help Chrono out.

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_TSAB Safe House (Fate's Apartment), __Uminari__ City__, __April 23rd, 2332__ Earth Time_

Fate flopped down on the bed beside Nanoha and sighed loudly, annoyed at the world. After the attack three days ago they'd been frantic to try and make a connection between the lone assailant that had attacked Fate in the park and the magically reanimated corpses that they'd been encountering at the school. With their most recent conference call with Chrono, it seemed as though they would finally get some back up in the form of Fate's familiar Arf and perhaps Yuuno Scrya if Chrono could manage to wrestle both them away from the great project of finally cataloguing the Bureau's Infinite Library that they'd been assigned. Fate didn't want Yuuno or Arf on Earth right now, for their presence would only make the situation more complicated. She sighed again, loosening her tie and staring at the ceiling.

"Fate-chan," Nanoha said, rolling over so that she was curled up against Fate, her hair tickling the underside of Fate's chin and her fingers tracing the patterns in Fate's shirt. "Why are you huffing? You never huff."

Fate shook her head slightly. She didn't know how Nanoha managed to see through her every action as though she was not even trying to be subtle; it was some sort of hidden talent that Fate herself did not possess. The idea that she lacked that skill, however, made her insanely jealous. It would be so nice to simply look at Nanoha and know what she was thinking – there were times when Nanoha's face was easier to read than an open book, but recently it seemed as though Nanoha had finally managed to learn how to close herself off to the rest of the world and keep her thoughts to herself. It was a shame that Nanoha had finally learned the soldier's way of looking at the world, just as Fate wanted a way into her subconscious so that she could finally figure out what was going on inside her friend's mind. Still, Fate guessed that she owed it to Nanoha to be honest and actually tell her friend what was brothering her, for it concerned Nanoha as well. "I'm tired Nanoha, and I've gotten used to you sleeping over."

Nanoha frowned, looking pensive and pouting her lips in a way that Fate found completely adorable. "Oh," she said. She smiled brightly at Fate, "What does that have to do anything, Fate-chan?" There were so many things about her friend that were just so endearing to her that there were times when Fate wondered if she'd ever marry and live a life like her adopted mother. She couldn't see herself as a wife, but a mother she could see quite clearly. All Fate did know was that she wanted – no she _needed_ – to continue to be with Nanoha for as long as she could. They'd promised long ago to stay together forever, and Fate had never been one to break her promises. Still, it bothered Fate that she was still stuck in this rut, trying to sort out just what, exactly, it was that she felt for Nanoha.

"When Arf and Yuuno are here, you're not going to be able to sleep over," Fate's cheeks burned as she admitted what was bothering her. "At least, not like you're doing now." She couldn't look at Nanoha, couldn't meet those expectant eyes and sad smile. This was her shame, her attachment to her best friend – she could not admit it to anyone save Nanoha.

"Why?" Nanoha looked almost hurt and Fate desperately wanted to reach out and touch her to say that she was sorry for implying that _she _didn't like sleeping with Nanoha. It wasn't that. It never was. Fate knew that Nanoha would ask that question, and she doesn't really have an answer. They'd slept in the same bed before, but never as regularly and intimately as they've been doing for the past month. Arf was bound to say something, as she still functioned, to some extent, as Fate's surrogate mother.

Fate shook her head, rolling over and facing away from Nanoha. "I can't explain it, but I have a feeling that Arf would not appreciate you and I being so intimate with each other. She's like a big brother and an overprotective father rolled into one." She laughed, trying to alleviate some of the awkwardness of the situation – she knew that her words hurt Nanoha and she couldn't stop herself. She had to explain herself now, or she never would. "Knowing Arf, she'd think that you were having your wicked way with me every night and that was why we're dead on our feet all the time. She'd try and separate us forcibly and I don't think that that would be fun for any of us."

Nanoha didn't say anything for a while, and Fate rolled over to face her friend once again. Their eyes met and suddenly everything felt right again. No matter what, Fate knew that Nanoha would be there for her. Perhaps that was enough.

Nanoha nodded, after a while of simply staring at Fate's face with a pensive look on her face that suggested her mind was working quite hard under the peacefully exhausted look that was currently gracing her features. They've been up for hours now and they finally have a chance to sleep. "Let's sleep now, Fate-chan." Nanoha pulled on Fate's shirtsleeve and Fate allowed herself to be pulled into the hug easily. It was so easy to simply indulge herself and the feelings that she had for Nanoha – and there were times when Fate hated herself for taking the easy way out and just letting Nanoha be all over her with no questions asked. "We can talk about what to do in the morning." Nanoha clearly felt the same sense of loss over being suddenly, and quite inexplicably having her bed partner taken away.

They fell into the motions of getting ready for bed, Fate slowly putting away her school things and pulling on the long t-shirt that she'd stolen from Chrono when he'd decided that he was too mature for shirts depicting Mid-Childa's beloved childhood hero. It barely covered everything that it was supposed to these days, but Fate still liked to wear it because it reminded her that she had a family now that cared about her very much and would go to great lengths to protect her.

Fate chanced a glance over at Nanoha, curious what her friend was going to wear to bed. Usually, Nanoha's pajamas were cute and functional, not sexy at all. Fate wondered if being brought up in the Takamachi put an emphasis on partiality and not visual stimulation – as Nanoha was always wearing clothes that did little to show off her figure and simply functioned as just that, clothes. Fate had been working to get her friend to buy something nice to wear for herself, but so far, Nanoha had flat-out refused even the offer of going out shopping.

Nanoha's pajamas were red with little white hearts all over them and positively adorable. Fate turned away from her friend before she was caught peeking and pulled the ribbon out of her hair. She'd been wearing it in a high ponytail for the past few days to try and alleviate some of the hassle that came from simply having it down or held back with a lone ribbon towards the base. So far, all it had done was succeeded in making Fate look far too much like Signum, much to Nanoha's amusement. Fate had decided that she would simply go back to her old hairstyle and tell Nanoha that if she ever told the Balka Knight about her brief foray into her trademark hairstyle that Fate would not be responsible for her actions.

Still, it was worth it to see Nanoha smile.

Fate crawled into bed and closed her eyes, waiting for Nanoha to crawl in beside her. They would figure this out in the morning, as they always did; running across the park at ungodly hours of the morning.

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_Aeronautics Club, __Shinkuru __Academy__, __April 24th, 1647__ Earth Time_

Takamachi Nanoha played with the paperclips in front of her as she and the rest of the Aeronautics Club discussed different ways to build the hot-air balloon that they'd all finally decided on for their first semester project. They needed a location to build it, and the club did not have an allotted room where it could simply start a construction project like that. They were tossing ideas out on where to build it, each being shot down for different reasons – mostly because this was a city and no one had a garage and parents who would let them completely take it over for an indeterminate amount of time while the club struggled to build it.

"What about asking the school for a room?" One of the second year students asked, scratching his nose with a grubby-looking fingernail.

"We already tried that, Maeno, remember?" The club president shot back. "They told us that we could make do with what we were given since we're such a small club."

Nanoha nodded her agreement, wondering if they would ever come to a decision or if she should just start talking battle strategy with Fate mentally again. The past three meetings of the club had been most productive in their efforts to hone their battle strategy so that they could take care of whatever enemies they encountered and get home with enough time to actually get a decent night's sleep. Nanoha wished that these boys were not so argumentative and obnoxious, as she really did want to sit here for another hour and debate the finer points of Axel Shooter and Photon Lancer's ability to kill reanimated already dead things with Fate.

"We could use the basement." The boy that had first set off Raising Heart's sensors, the quiet and ever enigmatic Takeshi Hazuno, spoke up. "My older brother did construction there over the school break before he started university because there was something wrong with one of foundations. He told me that there's tons of space down there – definitely enough to build this thing so that we can show it off at the summer festival!"

Nanoha's brow furrowed as the room erupted into noise once more. Takeshi Hazuno had an older bother that he clearly spent a lot of time with. That fact might explain why he seemed to have the Lost Logia's magical signature all over him when Nanoha had first met him, if his brother had somehow been connected to the relic in the first place. She couldn't help but think that this development was something that she would have to talk to Fate and possibly Chrono about before she could form an honest opinion on the chances of it actually being true.

But if it was true, then they had their man and it was just a matter of catching him and bringing him in.

_What do you think, Raising Heart?_ Nanoha asked her device mentally.

_It could be possible, my master. I do not have the ability to scan that deeply or thoroughly in this form, so you will need to scan your enemy at a later time. _Raising Heart responded promptly.

Nanoha smiled and nodded, _Alright then, Raising Heart, I will figure out a way to confirm this theory._

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_TSAB Safe House (Fate's Apartment), __Uminari__ City__, __April 24th, 1956__ Earth Time_

The air in the apartment was stifling as Fate and Nanoha sat shoulder to shoulder at the dinner table with fake-looking smiles plastered on their faces. Their conversations over the past twenty-four hours as to what to do in this situation had not been fruitful, and Nanoha had already called her parents and told them that she would be coming home later that night. Now all they had to do was play hostess to Yuuno and Arf and hope that neither of them noticed the obvious tension in the room over the sleeping arrangements.

Nanoha picked at her food, not really feeling the urge to eat at all while watching Arf in her child-form chewing happily on a large plate of microwaved dog food. There were some things that Nanoha really could have gone without seeing in her life, and she'd decided that watching anyone who was remotely human-shaped eating something that came out of a can and was marketed to dogs was one of them. At least Yuuno was there, and he was always fun to talk to.

"So how goes your project at the Infinite Library?" Nanoha asked after a few minutes of chewing and the quiet click of chopsticks and forks on plates.

Yuuno looked up and smiled, his hair falling into his eyes as he fiddled with his glasses. Nanoha knew that it was a nervous habit of his to fiddle with his glasses, but she couldn't figure out why he was nervous. They'd been friends for ages, and this was just a meal between friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. "Alright. We've gotten through a lot of the manuscripts that are just loose and floating around the library now. The next step is to start a catalogue system that will make the library more manageable."

Arf stopped chewing for a moment and piped up, "We're thinking that magic will be the best way to sort the books."

Fate smiled and Nanoha cast a sidelong glance at her. The blond, at least, seemed to be having a good time in seeing her familiar again. Arf was like Fate's child some of the time, and Fate's incredibly loyal and overprotective elder sister. It was a strange balance for Nanoha to maintain appearances for, because she never knew just how she should act around Arf. "Let me know before you do it so that I can feed you more magic, alright Arf?"

Arf's childlike face fell. "Fate, you don't have to do that! We'll be fine." Nanoha wondered how 'fine' they would be, for the amount of magic that it would take to reorganize something as massive as the Infinite Library was not something to be trifled with. They understood better than most people what it meant to flirt with high powered spells like that, and without Fate's help, Arf was likely to completely exhaust her magic and cease to exist all together.

Fate laughed. "It's alright; I want to help you out however I can. It's a big project." She was covering for the general feeling of insecurity in the room. Nanoha was grateful that Fate was on top of the situation enough to not burst out something potentially offensive to Arf about how she should be careful with Fate's magic – as Fate would be devastated if anything were to happen to Arf.

The dinner progressed nicely and soon the evening was winding down to the point where Nanoha knew that soon they would be heading to bed and she was going to have to leave soon. As they started to wash the dishes, Nanoha could feel Arf's eyes on her and soon she excused herself to go into the bedroom that she'd shared with Fate for the past few weeks to collect a day's worth of clothes and her school things.

She wanted to say something to Fate, to tell her that she was sorry that they had to try and avoid the conflict between their house guests and the routine that they'd fallen into over the past few weeks. She wanted to tell Fate how she would not sleep tonight because she doesn't think that she will able to sleep without something warm and comfortable to sleep curled up around. It's awkward, to think that she might not be able to deal with something like this on her own. Nanoha can't help but feel foolish for wanting to stay with Fate, because she'd really grown used to sleeping with someone else and it would not be fun to sleep alone.

Nanoha sighed. She would probably stay up all night working with Raising Heart on getting close to Takeshi Hazuno and his older brother to see if they finally had a face to put to the blood red glow of the magic that had attacked Fate last week. Perhaps she would risk an off-planet telecom link and try and get in touch with Hayate and Vita, just to see what they were up to.

A delicate-sounding cough from the doorway interrupted Nanoha's thoughts and she turned to see Fate in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Nanoha shoved the last of her clothes into her school bag and pulled it onto her shoulder. She looked up at Fate then, her eyes full of the emotion that she could not express in words. She didn't have the words to say what she wanted to Fate, to reassure her that everything was sure to work out in the end, the way that it always did when it came to the two of them.

Nanoha adjusted the shoulder strap on her bag one more time and started to gather the magical energy needed to create _Flyer Fin_ without Raising Heart being materialized into device mode. The magical circle appeared under her feet and the spell was very quickly set into full motion. The pale pink wings made purely of her magic appeared a split second later. "I'm going to fly home," She announced, walking over to the window and giving Fate what she hoped was her best smile.

"Are you sure?" Fate asked, looking suddenly concerned.

Nanoha looked away, knowing that Fate was worried about her using magic, again. She didn't know what she had to do to convince Fate that it was fine for her to use magic like any other person. That injury was three years ago, and she'd spent the better part of a year recovering from it – only to discover that she was just as fit to perform her duties as before. Nanoha frowned slightly, knowing that Fate's concern for her well-being was genuine. She really shouldn't be flying when she could just as well be walking, especially while on Earth – but still, Nanoha had been aching to be in the sky all day. They'd been stuck to the earth for far too long on this mission and Nanoha knew that she was bound to go crazy if she didn't have some sort of sky battle soon.

They were, after all, what she was best at.

"Yeah. I need to think for a few minutes, Fate-chan." Nanoha finally looked back at her friend to meet those sad eyes. She plastered a smile on her face, putting on the brave outwards appearance that so many people associated with Takamachi Nanoha, flight instructor extraordinaire. "I have to try and clear my head. There's so much going on now – and we need to figure out what we're going to do about the fact that my club wants to hang out in the school's basement with those creatures."

"Alright." Nanoha knew that Fate wasn't going to argue with her, for the reasoning was sound and Nanoha's love of the sky was one of the few things that Fate knew never to question. It had been that drive to get back into the sky that had pushed Nanoha through those six months of painful recovery in order to walk after her accident.

Fate smiled at her, and walked over to the bed, pulling her pillow out from under the tangled pile of comforter and sheets that they'd been too distracted that morning to take care of. She held it out to Nanoha with a slight blush crossing her cheeks. Nanoha supposed that it was justified, as offering something like that was the action of a lover and not a best friend. Again, they were blurring the line between what exactly their relationship was. "Take this with you. It'll help."

"How do you know?" Nanoha asked, taking the pillow with slightly wide eyes. Fate was always so wise when it came to knowing how things were going to happen when it came to Nanoha's subconscious. Nanoha wondered how she did it, sometimes, but Fate had always been the quiet, observant type.

"Because I know you, Nanoha. Try and get some sleep tonight." Fate grinned and allowed her hand to brush Nanoha's cheek as she reached around her friend to shove open the window behind Nanoha.

"I will." Nanoha promised. She had no idea how she was going to keep that promise, but she allowed herself to entertain the notion that she might actually be able to get away with what she was promising to do. Fate's pillow, an incredibly intimate gesture, was not something that anyone would take lightly.

Nanoha allowed herself to fall backwards out of the window before she allowed the magic to take hold once more. The sensation of falling was neither unique nor new, but rather something that she had grown used to over the years. Perhaps it was the sensation of falling, rather than taking to the skies, that Nanoha was really addicted to.

With a quiet sigh, Nanoha sped off into the night towards her parent's house and a bed that would not hold the comforts of a good night's sleep.

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"Are you alright?" Arf looked worriedly at her master as Fate numbly went about the motions of getting ready for bed. They had to do this, for Fate didn't want to admit to herself that she'd grown used to having Nanoha around at night, and sleeping alone was going to be something of an awful experience.

"No, not really Arf." Fate said quietly, climbing into bed and pulling Nanoha's pillow into a tight hug. It smelled like her, which was strange considering that Nanoha spent most of the night slobbering on Fate's shoulder or breasts. She smiled fondly and buried her face in the pillow, intent to ignore Arf for as long as she could. It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see her familiar, quite the opposite, really; but she didn't know how to react to the ache in her heart as she watched Nanoha fly off into the night.

"Why can't you sleep?" Arf sat on the side of the bed and shifted from her child form to her adult form – the pull on Fate's magic and the bed's sudden dip telling Fate that her familiar must be quite concerned for her well being. Arf leaned over, her body pressing up against Fate's back as their eyes met. Fate tried to ignore Arf's expectant eyes.

Arf, as if sensing that Fate did not want to talk, prodded her just under her ribs on the small of her back - the one place that Nanoha had never discovered that she was ticklish. Fate shrieked and arched her back to get away from the touch, but Arf persisted. "It can't be that bad a reason, Fate," Arf said with a wicked smile on her face. Fate closed her eyes so that she wouldn't have to see that look and tried to roll over onto her back so at least she would be protected from the tickling onslaught.

Gods above, this was embarrassing. She was putty in Arf's hands, for all. This was such low way to get information out of anyone and Arf knew it. Fate would have just respected her own wish to keep the information to herself - but _no_ - Arf was resorting to the tactics of a five year old child. Fate wondered if perhaps she should just have Nanoha become Arf's co-master so that the could both be feeding the familiar magic so that Arf could stay in adult form most of the time - as being in child form was very clearly effecting her judgment.

"I-I…" Fate knew that she was blushing, that this was awkward and that Arf would probably laugh at her when this was over. She hated feeling so insecure about her feelings towards Nanoha, but they were almost too close to her own heart for her to be able to admit them to herself. It was just an honest attraction that she'd never really been able to explain before. The recent weeks had been very clear indicators of just how deep Fate's feelings ran.

She rolled over, groaning and knowing that her blush was furious at this point. She had to answer Arf, or the teasing and tickling would get worse. She grit her teeth and ground out the response, silently vowing to find some way of getting Arf back at the soonest opportunity. "I miss Nanoha."

"Nanoha? You see her everyday, why?"

Fate's cheeks burned even brighter, if that was possible. She wanted to be somewhere - _anywhere -_ but here. Arf's curiously expectant gaze and nonchalant question carried far more meaning than her familiar knew. Fate didn't know how to answer that question without wanting to die of embarrassment. Perhaps Arf would understand, and just leave her in her humiliation once she found out her answer.

"She's nice… to sleep with." Fate wanted the bed to simply swallow her whole, to avoid the embarrassment of a very amused looking Arf leaning over her with a wicked grin on her face.

"Oh?" Arf asked, her smile growing wider. Damn, she wasn't going to be nice about it, and if that smile was anything to go by, it would only be a matter of time before Yuuno, Chrono and the rest of the TSAB knew.

Fate sighed, reaching out and grabbing the collar of Arf's shirt. "You tell anyone and I will cut off your magic supply," she threatened. She knew that she would never actually do that, but the threat was a very real one and she knew that this was something that she had to reveal on her own time to the people that she cared about within the TSAB. She supposed that she actually go through and explain to Arf why exactly this was a change in the norm, because Arf had been teasing Fate about her attachment to Nanoha for years - this current moment was just one of many incidents in a long chain of events that Arf had witnessed that pushed Fate's carefully guarded feelings for her best friend to the forefront of conversation and consciousness once more. "Arf, you guys showing up made the both of us very worried and so we decided to sleep apart for the first time in weeks. I miss her." Fate admitted.

"I kicked her out, huh?" Arf looked pensive for a moment.

"Mn." Fate grunted.

"I'm sorry Fate, I had no idea that you were that way." Arf's wicked smile grew wider as she said every word and Fate groaned loudly. Of course Arf would have to mock her about this. Of course.

It was bad enough that Fate didn't even know herself what she felt about the entire situation.

"We're not!" Fate buried her face in the pillow once more and tried to calm the furious blush that had turned her cheeks bright red once more.

"Whatever you say…" Arf shook her head and curled up at the foot of the bed. Fate smiled, knowing that Arf would try and protect her, even when she didn't really need protecting. She would just have to die of embarrassment in the process.

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_Student Shoe Lockers, __Shinkuru__ Academy__, __April 25th, 0745__ Earth Time_

That morning Nanoha was in a foul mood. She'd slept for maybe three hours the night before and wanted nothing to do with her classmates and the teachers thinking that she was some sort of delinquent. The night away from Fate had made her think, and realize that there was something lurking in her subconscious with regards to her best friend.

She'd known for a while now that she wanted more than just friendship from Fate, but she didn't know how exactly to go about telling Fate that. It would be awkward and Nanoha valued her friendship with Fate so much more than she valued the feelings that she'd only recently uncovered.

She saw Fate by her shoe locker and slowly Nanoha pulled on her own shoes and headed over to stand by her friend. The last of the chattering upperclassmen left the locker room just as Nanoha approached Fate and the two of them were suddenly very much alone. Nanoha didn't know what she was going to do, for all she wanted to do was fall into Fate's arms and tell her exactly how awful it was to have to sleep alone No one else was around and suddenly Nanoha found herself unable to resist touching Fate.

She was in Fate's arms in seconds, her face buried in the crook of Fate's neck and her breath hot against the exposed skin there.

"Nanoha?" Fate asked, obviously taken aback. Nanoha didn't move, however, and simply pushed herself even closer to Fate. This was entirely inappropriate, but Fate was not objecting and Nanoha was not going to move. It felt so right, so comfortable and so wonderful just to stay like this, and Nanoha did not want to pull away from this feeling.

She knew that she should find the words to tell Fate of her attachment soon, or the chance would slip through her fingers and they would be done with this mission and thousands of light years apart once more.

Yet the words would not come. Nanoha stood there, unable to move, breathing heavily on Fate's neck. She brought her lips up to brush lightly against Fate's ear. The bright red flush on Fate's ear told Nanoha that her friend was blushing, and badly. "That can't happen again. I need to sleep." Nanoha pulled back to smile brightly at Fate. She was right; the flush across Fate's face was quite adorable.

Fate grinned back at her, "I'll tell Arf tonight after we patrol."

"Alright," Nanoha grinned. She threw her cautions to the wind and added, "I've got something to tell you, then."

Fate nodded. "Alright."

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_Over the City of __Uminari__, __April 26th, 0323__ Earth Time_

Fate blew through three cartridges in quick succession as she struggled to maintain the shield that was the only barrier between herself and the raging magical storm before her. Their faceless enemy was back, and his anti-magical force was running at full strength as he engaged both Fate and Nanoha in aerial combat – it was hard enough for Fate to stay in the air, let alone keep fighting. Nanoha wasn't fairing too much better, but she had fallen back to a range where she might be able to pull off Divine Buster if they found themselves with an attack window.

Raising Heart had protested to her master and Fate's insistence that they not power up to Exceed Mode and attempt to pull off Starlight Breaker against such a foe. While the attack was by far one of the most powerful that Fate had ever seen, there was nothing distinctly magical about the destruction it caused. Unlike many of Fate's magical attacks – Starlight Breaker caused destruction of both magical and physical beings. And they wanted this guy alive if at all possible.

The Lost Logia made their foe powerful, and the sickening glow of his blood red magic was enough to send Fate's stomach into a pitch battle with the rest of her body as it threatened to expel her dinner all over Uminari City. No one's magic should be that color – for it signaled the ultimate corruption of the soul and the decay of morality to the point where the corrupted would kill without discrimination or hesitation.

Fate swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat and pushed forward with all her might, sending her shields ahead of her as she charged their faceless attacker with Bardiche in Zamber form. Her attacks fell off his shields as though she was not even hitting him with every ounce of power she possessed.

"Damn," she skidded off through the air, bouncing his shields harmlessly as he turned his attention to the constant hail of Axel Shooter bullets that Nanoha was sending in his direction. They were not doing well at all, and it seemed as though not even having Arf and Yuuno around to act as support was helping them at all.

"Leave me alone!" The man with the blood red magic shouted angrily, power building around him.

Fate loaded two more cartridges into Bardiche's waiting chamber and then pulled the clip out, reloading in record time as she heard her device's mechanical voice in her head, "_Photon Lancer, Get Set."_

Bardiche had taken, during the battle, to keeping their attacks as wildcards so that their foe could not predict their movements. He could only judge their actions on how many cartridges Fate loaded into Bardiche at any particular moment – if he even understood the Balka cartridge system at all.

Fate didn't think that this mage possessed a powerful linker core to begin with. The relic that had infected him was somehow amplifying his magical power to the point of almost insanity – for his levels were off the chart for every scan that they ran on him. "Shoot," she said quietly, giving Bardiche the command to launch the attack and finally see if the combined firepower of both herself and Nanoha would be enough pull them though this battle and defeat their foe.

"Why won't you just leave!?" The man bellowed, his shields amplifying ten fold as he wrapped his arms around himself. His whole body began to glow with that eerie, blood red magical light.

Fate braced herself, but her shields were not enough to stand up against the onslaught of the attack. They crumbled in a matter of seconds and Fate felt something warm well up on her chest as she watched with horror as her linker core suddenly flickered to life before her. She couldn't move, but she struggled against the bind anyway, fighting with all her strength to get free and to get away.

"If I take this, you won't attack me any more." Their enemy proclaimed happily. He was suddenly right in front of her, his eyes narrowed and pupil-less. He reached down and closed his hand around her linker core.

Fate screamed. The pain of having her linker core crushed like that was nothing like she'd ever felt before. She had no frame of reference to the pain of having her magic slowly pulled from her body – only a white hot burning sensation all across her body that was amplified by the fact that she could not struggle against her attacker at all.

Her eyes closed, tears streaming down from them as she tried to force all other thoughts from her mind, save the want to break away from the bind she was trapped in. _Nanoha…_

"Get away from her!" Nanoha's voice, god, it seemed so far away. Fate struggled to open her eyes long enough to see a blinding blast of light hit the man square in the back. His hand released her linker core and suddenly the world went black.


	5. Waiting Games

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Five, "Waiting Games"

AN: A note on the holidays: I didn't get a chance to ask my Japanese professor if there was a school holiday around the end of April in Japan. My research indicates that Golden Week falls during the last week of April and first week in May, so I've decided that Shinkuru Academy does have a school break during that time. It's only a week, so I think that it does make sense to keep it as a school holiday. Please correct me if you think I'm wrong, because I'm really making it up as I go along here...

Wow. There's almost no fluff in this chapter. Such a bummer. I should fix this next chapter. :D

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_Medical Cabin, The Warship Asura, __April 29th, 1305__ Earth Time_

Takamachi Nanoha had not slept in close to two days as she sat by her best friend's bedside and waited for her to wake up. The reports on Fate's mental activity, along with the reliance of her linker core – the basis of all her magic – did not look good at all. The damage from the attack had been extensive, with Fate's linker core being almost completely crushed as a result of the attack. The doctors aboard the Asura had no idea how she'd managed to survive such an attack. Subject A, as they'd designated the Lost Logia infected human; had managed to completely separate Fate's linker core from her body with a spell that they'd never seen before. He'd nearly managed to completely crush it, an act of destruction that was completely unprecedented within the Bureau. Chrono and Yuuno both had never heard of the Bureau dealing with a creature that actually functioned by not only draining an individual's magical power, but destroying it in the process. Such an act of destruction was considered taboo by even the most fanatical rebels against the Bureau's subtle control over inter-dimensional time and space.

Nanoha clenched her fists around the bits of the thin cotton blanket that the ship's doctor had thought to almost carelessly toss over Fate's still-unconscious body before they'd left Nanoha alone in the room. She continued her vigil silently, looking at the faceless people that came in and out of the room to check on Fate as she slept on. They couldn't tell if Fate was in a coma or just a simple deep sleep that she would rise from on her own accord, and right now it didn't matter one way or the other. Fate would rest until she was ready to wake up, the doctor said, when her linker core and body were ready to function once more.

It hurt her to see Fate this way, and Nanoha was never one to stop her tears from falling once they started. She'd been crying on and off all day, as it was, and her eyes were bloodshot and angry looking against her pale cheeks. This hurt her far more than anything else had ever hurt her in her life, seeing Fate lying so lifeless. There was almost no warmth in her friend's hands as Nanoha held onto them, calling out with her heart, begging for Fate to wake up and embrace her as they'd done that morning – before all of this had started.

_I never got to tell her,_ Nanoha thought sadly. She reached up and brushed Fate's bangs out of her eyes, tenderly caressing her best friend's cheek as she did so. Fate would wake up soon, Nanoha knew it, and then these days of anguish and doubt would be over once more.

"Nanoha." She looked up to see Chrono standing in the doorway, looking far more commanding and powerful than she remembered him ever looking before. They were much older now, and their ranks were not the only thing separating them from the easy companionship of Nanoha's school days. Chrono was her superior officer, her direct superior with Fate in a state like this.

"Sir," Nanoha nodded. She did not stand up and great him properly, but she did raise her hand in a half-hearted salute.

"Still no change?" Chrono sat down in the vacant chair beside Nanoha and averted his eyes as Nanoha slowly removed her hand from Fate's face to once more grasp her best friend's hand once more. She was a little self-conscious about the fact that Chrono had walked in on such an intimate moment, but then she knew that that was the only reason elder bothers existed at all. They were just sort of hot-wired to walk in at the worst possible moment of _everything_; Nanoha was somewhat used to it with her own brother. The fact that Chrono was still her superior officer on this mission somehow did little to alleviate the awkwardness of the situation.

Nanoha shook her head. She didn't need to tell Chrono that Fate's condition was stable but had not changed for nearly twenty-four hours, he knew all of that already; it was just part of the questions that you asked of anyone who sat with a sick person. Chrono was just following the prescribed pattern of society as a whole; Nanoha was used to it by now. "Fate-chan is strong, she'll wake up when she's ready to go back and get that guy once and for all," she said confidently. She squeezed Fate's hand, wishing, just once, that Fate would squeeze back and reassure her that the brave front that she was putting on was not just an act.

Nanoha was bad with public faces. She could put them on, but the insecurity of not really knowing what would happen as a direct result of her actions always scared her. She was nowhere near powerful enough to actually protect those she loved if they wound up like Fate, laying unconscious in the Asura's medical bay with an injury such as this. They were getting older now, and damage to their linker cores was harder to fix. They didn't bounce back like a child's did, and Nanoha was worried that this attack would somehow damage Fate's linker core permanently, despite everything that the ship's doctor assured her to the contrary.

Chrono looked pensive for a moment, before he spoke quietly, his voice barely audible over the steady beep of the monitors in the room – tracking Fate's life forces. "I should pull her from the mission. The damage to her linker core will take a long time to recover, and she's in bad shape as it is." He looked at Nanoha then, his eyes pained. Nanoha had never really known just how much Chrono and Lindy Harlaown cared for Fate, but Chrono's expression then spoke volumes as to how he was feeling at the moment.

Seeing Fate like this hurt him as much as it hurt Nanoha.

Nanoha struggled to keep her knee-jerk reaction at Chrono's announcement that Fate would be pulled from the case to a minimum, but didn't really succeed all too well as she was on her feet in seconds. "Chrono! You couldn't do that to Fate-chan!"

Chrono looked somewhat defeated for a moment, but then his eyes hardened and Nanoha found herself in the middle of a staring contest with someone who was far better at it than she herself was. She knew that she looked like an angry, indignant spoilt child, but she did not care. There was no way that she was going to allow Chrono to remove Fate from the mission that could very easily define the rest of her career as an enforcer for the TSAB.

"I have no choice, Nanoha," Chrono said in a tone that warned Nanoha that she was getting dangerously close to insubordination. She wisely closed her mouth, knowing better than to pick a battle over something like this, and waited with her arms crossed and her expression defiant to hear his reasoning.

"The Bureau's policy clearly states that officers injured in the line of duty are to be removed from the field and if the mission is compromised – which I remind you that it is – than it should be scrubbed entirely until a more _fitting_ force can be put into place to actually collect the Lost Logia in question." Chrono looked down at his hands. "As much as this mission is Fate's, I also have to worry about her reputation and my own – not to mention yours. We're all new at what we're doing; we have to be careful not to step on any of the higher-up's toes on this mission. We have to play it by the book."

Nanoha hung her head. Her hands clenched in her lap, tangled up in the fabric of her skirt. "I understand, sir." She said quietly. "I hope that you will consider the fact that as far as the ground crew is concerned, the mission is still salvageable and I will be more than willing to return to the field to take down Subject A."

She would do much more than take him down, and the implication behind her words was not lost to Chrono, as he folded his arms across his chest and glared moodily at the monitors across the bed from the two of them. "No, Nanoha." He said at length. "I want to you to sit tight and wait for Fate to wake up. You two will be returning to the field, but when you do it will be together. I do not want a repeat of the last time either of you were left to your own devices under such circumstances."

Nanoha swallowed, remembering Fate's face swimming into view as she woke up in the hospital three years ago. Fate had killed that day; she'd killed many people that she'd thought had been responsible for what had happened to Nanoha when she'd been given the go ahead to attack – to _maim_, _to kill _– in the name of her best friend.

They never talked about it, the event being one of those moments in time that stuck out like a sore thumb in both of their memories as a collective failure. Nanoha had slowed down and had nearly died; Fate had gotten her to safety and then had been sent back in by a foolish commander who had no idea what such an action would do to Fate's already fragile mind.

In a way, they were still struggling to recover from that traumatic event. Treading carefully around each other and constantly plagued with worry over the best course of action to ensure than neither of them ever hurt themselves again. And now Nanoha had failed, and Fate lay on the bed with injuries that she might never recover from. This was her failure, and Nanoha wanted nothing more than to go out and destroy the very being that had put her best friend and closest ally into such a state.

She couldn't say anything to Chrono, to tell him that she desperately needed to do _something_, for the waiting and the worrying was killing her. He would have to understand if she slipped away later on, when no one was watching. She had to find Subject A; she had to make him pay for doing this to her Fate-chan.

Her fists were clenched in the fabric of her skirt as she tried to force herself not to yell at Chrono. He was as protective as Fate as she was, he was just better at functioning as a moderate and calm voice of reason, where Nanoha was all firepower. "I will not do anything rash, Chrono."

Chrono grinned, his eyes easy and kind as though he was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Nanoha knew that he knew what she was thinking. There was no way that Chrono could have known the two of them for nearly eight years and not picked up on a few of the key facets of Nanoha and Fate's relationship. It was just a matter of fooling him then, and Nanoha had to confess that she was not nearly as good at lying as she would like to believe. Chrono sighed, his grin falling off of his face almost as easily as it had first graced his features. "I want you to go talk with Yuuno and the rest of the support staff, Nanoha. They've done some analysis on your enemy and the creatures that you've been fighting. If you're lucky, this time that you have off from school might actually allow you to fully plan out what your best course of action will be against Subject A."

Nanoha nodded, suddenly grateful that Chrono was not making a big deal out of the fact that she was so ready for a fight that it was almost killing her. He was being a voice of reason, the way he usually was in such situations, when Nanoha could not think of anything but revenge and retribution. He was telling her to do something productive with the time she was given, and that she should start to make a battle plan so that they had a proposed plan of action once they were able to fully mobilize once again. "I will do that. Thank you."

Chrono shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. "It's my job, Nanoha. I would have done it for anyone."

Nanoha did not think that he knew just how much he'd done in those simple words, but she had no heart to tell him. She rose from her seat and headed towards the door, pausing there to turn back and cast one more sad, regretful look in Fate's direction. She would fix this, she had to. "Please take care of her," she said quietly.

"I will," Chrono said. "Come back soon."

Nanoha made a noise to the affirmative and took a moment to pull herself together before stepping through the door. Walking away from Fate was something that she never wanted to do, something that hurt her far more than seeing Fate injured. She could not help herself now, she had to go, to talk to Yuuno and the others and see if there was any way that they'd actually be able to defeat Subject A in any sort of a timely way.

"You have a call waiting, my master," Raising Heart announced from her pocket. "a long-range communication from Hayate Yagami."

Nanoha blinked and hurriedly threaded together enough magical energy so that she could form a monitor screen so that she could talk to Hayate as she walked down toward the mess hall where she was positive she would find Yuuno and Arf.

The monitor blinked to life, glowing with a slight yellow tinge that offset her own pink-colored magic to something akin to the color of salmon. Long-range communication was something that the Asura's own magic sustained on its own, so really all Nanoha was doing was providing enough power for Raising Heart to tap into the Asura's larger magical core. Hayate's face swam into view two seconds later and Nanoha struggled to pull a smile for her friend. She was pretty sure that she'd managed to pull off something that could be called a smile, but it felt strange to have her face pulled out of an expression that could be labeled as worry. "Hayate-chan," she said in way of greeting. "How are you?"

Hayate had started officer training with the Ground Forces on Mid-Childa the previous year, after that fire at the airport that had nearly killed hundreds of people because of the TSAB's inability to send in reinforcements in any sort of a timely manner. She was trying to form something of an elite force that would be both autonomous and yet integrated with the Ground Forces to deal with emergency deployment and fast-disaster relief. Right now, however, Hayate was bogged down by the fact she had to go through several military ranks before she could even consider proposing such an idea to her superiors.

Hayate looked worried, and Nanoha could hear voices in the background from Hayate's end. Most likely Vita and Signum were listening in on the conversation. "Are you alright? Yuuno told me what happened to Fate-chan…" She trailed off, for finish the sentence seemed almost pointless.

Nanoha could feel the tears welling up again, but she forced them down with a force of will that she did not know she possessed. "We're going to stop him," she said with a resolute smile. "We know how he operates now, so we can avoid that attack in the future."

"Nanoha…" Hayate said, her voice betraying the worry that she was feeling. "You don't even know what drives your enemy, how do you propose to take him down?"

She didn't really need the answer, Nanoha knew. It was just a matter of getting Nanoha to stop and think for a moment. "I don't know." Nanoha admitted, "I've got so many ideas, Hayate-chan, but none of them will work."

"It's Golden Week there right now, isn't it?" Hayate asked, a smile drifting across her face. They had fond memories of this week, for it was usually the first week that Uminari City was finally out of the bizarre funk that came during just spring, with the weather warm enough for picnics and fun outings in the park.

"Yes," Nanoha answered. "We're lucky that this happened when it did, or else we'd have to make an excuse for Fate-chan's absence."

They really were lucky, too, since the school officials were already dealing with far more magic than the average human witnessed in a lifetime in subtle mind control spells and a few cleverly places computer records. It would be foolish to have to add more to that lie than they had to, since they were already risking possible run-ins with the TSAB's ethics committee over what they were doing. Nanoha just hoped the ends justified the means when everything was said and done.

Hayate looked thoughtful, chewing on her lip and swatting at something off-screen. "Stop it, you guys, I'm trying to talk," she said, before turning her attention back to Nanoha once again. "How are you, really, Nanoha?" Her tone was serious and Nanoha knew that there would be no fooling Hayate into believing that she really was completely alright.

"I don't know." Nanoha said truthfully. She paused for a moment before the door to Fate's private quarters aboard the Asura and then typed the pass-code into the door's lock so that she could go inside. She didn't want to bear her heart to Hayate about the present situation in public. She would not risk potentially embarrassing herself and Fate in front of the Asura's crew – she had far too much respect for Fate's privacy for that. The door slid closed behind her and Nanoha breathed a sigh out as she continued on, knowing that she couldn't stop now or she would lose her nerve completely. "And what's worse is that I was going to confess to her that night, after we finished patrol."

Hayate laughed, outright laughed.

Nanoha stared at the screen, the pixels flickering as Hayate moved around faster than the camera could record on her end. "What?" She demanded. She wasn't really angry, but it felt good to be snappy at someone where they wouldn't consider it insubordination if she spoke out of turn.

"It's just that you're just _now_ deciding to do that. You and Fate have been married since _third grade_, Nanoha." Hayate said, her wide smile splitting her face into something akin to a maniacal smile. "I honestly thought that you guys had done that _ages _ago, back in middle school."

"What, confess?" Nanoha asked. At Hayate's nod, she sighed, "There never really was any time, and I never really realized just how nice it is to have her around me. I like sleeping next to her, waking up next to her, working with her on a daily basis. I don't think that I can bear to be separated again."

Hayate's smile faded a little, a wicked gleam appearing in her eyes. "Sleeping together?"

Nanoha blushed brightly. "Nyahahaha, it's not like that, Hayate-chan!"

It seemed, however, that it was too late to dig herself out of the hole that she'd created. Hayate laughed a little too evilly for her tastes and Nanoha found herself wishing that she could simply disconnect their conversation and avoid the confrontation that was about to happen.

_Still_, Nanoha thought twenty minutes later when she'd finally begged off from finishing the conversation with Hayate, _it was nice to actually come out and say it._ Somehow putting the words together helped her to really examine what it was that she did feel for Fate, if it was anything more than a casual crush.

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_Mess Hall, The Warship Asura, __April 29th, 1722__ Earth Time_

The mood of the room was such that Nanoha was positive that she was going to have to tell everyone to stop looking as though someone had actually died and just do their jobs so that no more people would be killed in the first place. She was in no mood to sit and listen to lectures about how she should concentrate on being a better officer and friend – and how she could not act at the moment for fear of losing whatever advantage they had over Subject A to begin with. Still, it was positively awful to sit and watch as Yuuno carefully outlined his attack plan to both Arf and herself. They were doing this privately, yet in a public place so that everyone could see them and be positive that the girl who was starting to acquire the nickname 'White Devil' had not run off to some non-administrated world to blast monsters until they were allowed to actually act for the mission once again; before they took it to the whole crew of the Asura. Nanoha guessed that it was probably because Yuuno wasn't sure that such a plan would work.

Fate would wake up in a few hours, maybe a day, according to the latest medical reports, and then they would go back to Earth to finish the mission in time to vanish before the end of Golden Week if they were lucky, if not, they would have to stay on Earth until the school's summer vacation in July and think of an excuse to leave then. Nanoha didn't really mind that idea, for it gave her more time to be with Fate in a peaceful setting that would not hurt whatever chances they would have at developing a relationship.

Nanoha was still hopeful; she'd never gotten a chance to tell Fate how she felt. She'd been planning to do that the night that Fate had gotten hurt and now Nanoha was starting to worry that if she didn't say something soon, she'd lose her nerve and never be able to get the words out when she finally got a chance to confess to Fate once more.

"Alright," Yuuno said, drawing a square with his fingers and bringing up a display that showed the latest battle read outs and some footage that Yuuno must have collected while Nanoha was too busy worrying about Fate's safety. "I think that it's safe to assume that Subject A's connection with the Lost Logia is well beyond that of someone who is simply infected with relic's ability to grant wishes." He pulled another screen out of nowhere and pointed to a close up of their enemy. The man was holding something that looked like a serrated blade and drawing it across his forearm, making a deep cut that bled freely as he continued to fight in inhumanly high power levels.

Nanoha had no idea how she'd missed something like that in the heat of battle, because the footage and Yuuno's readouts seemed to indicate that after Subject A had cut himself, his magical power had increased ten fold. "That explains the color of his magic," she breathed, leaning in to get a better look at the readings before sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms moodily across her chest. "That explains how he was able to smash through Fate-chan's shields as though they were not even there at the same time as performing the linker core extraction spell."

Arf nodded, picking up an apple from the bowl in the middle of the table. She took a bite and grimaced, before setting it down once more. Nanoha smiled at this, Arf would forever be a strict carnivore. "I sensed a huge spike in has magical power right before he latched on to Fate's linker core as well." The fact that Arf had not faded away into nothingness after such a devastating attack on her master's magical core was because Yuuno had apparently been secretly supplying the familiar with energy for months now. It had come out during the aftermath of that first night, with Nanoha demanding to know _why_, exactly it was that Arf could be doing so well when Fate was in such poor condition. Nanoha still wasn't sure how she felt about Yuuno and Arf being that close, but it did make sense that Yuuno should provide the familiar with _something_ seeing as Fate was always jet-setting across the galaxy and it was next to impossible to sustain energy transfers over such along distance.

Still, it was weird.

Nanoha looked to Yuuno, who pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled back at her. "What do we do about something like this?" she asked, feeling slightly defeated by the idea that Subject A seemed to be able to cause his power levels to spike without much effort at all.

"I think that the best bet is to figure out how Subject A is managing to reanimate the dead. I have a theory that it might be simply run off magic from when he powers up, but I'd need to be there in the basement of your school to confirm it." Yuuno said. "Once we know how exactly it is that he does that, I think that we should perhaps get the sealing round back from your teachers, Nanoha, and then corner Subject A in a place where he can't have a dog-fight with anyone. His long range attack skills are rather weak."

Nanoha nodded, "Do you want me to try and get him with Starlight Breaker?" She wasn't sure that was such a good idea, ever since she'd been injured three years ago, she'd been trying to avoid her trademark attack as much as possible. It wasn't because she was afraid of expending that much energy, but rather that she was worried about what Fate would do, if she heard about it. She was still supposed to be taking it easy, and some of the techs back on Mid-Childa were working on an upgrade to Raising Heart that would help her to maintain her barrier jacket and blaster systems with much less stress on her linker core.

Right now, however, Nanoha had to be careful. That system was still in the works and the only upgrade to Raising Heart that she could do on her own was creating Aggressive Mode for her barrier jacket, but without the blaster system Nanoha had decided that it was rather pointless to use it.

"No," Yuuno said. "Chrono wants him alive if at all possible and I agree with him. I don't know if he can be saved at this point, with the Lost Logia so deeply embedded into his linker core and being, but we have to try if at all possible." He looked up at Nanoha with sad eyes, "From what I gather, Subject A was just a human with some mage talent who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

She nodded, for it made a lot more sense than to just simply say that she wanted to kill him by hitting him with as much magical energy as she could arrange. She'd never killed anyone before, and she wasn't really sure if she had the stomach for it. Nanoha wasn't even sure that she wanted to find out.

Arf frowned. "We still have no idea who this guy is." She paged through the data on Yuuno's monitor screens and her frown deepened. "All we have is a general description that could be half of the men in Japan."

"Takeshi Hazuno," Nanoha said quietly. Both Yuuno and Arf's heads swiveled around to look at her and she shook her head to rid the feeling of dread in her stomach as she finally put words to her suspicions about the boy. "He's a member of the aeronautics club – the one that I told Fate about early on in the mission." At Yuuno and Arf's confused looks, Nanoha sighed. "It's in the mission reports, if you bothered to read them, you'd know all about him. Anyway, last week, Takeshi-san mentioned that he had a bother who'd worked doing some construction in the school over the break. Apparently, there was an earthquake that damaged some of the school's foundations. I think that there's a good chance that the reason that Raising Heart picked up on the Lost Logia's signal from Takeshi-san was because of the fact that he and his brother still live together. Prolonged exposure to a magical artifact like a Lost Logia, even if you're not directly in contact with it, can give off the same signals to a device like Raising Heart."

Yuuno looked hopeful for the first time in nearly two days. This was good then, Nanoha guessed. They might be able to do something with this information. "We're going to have to look more closely at this, Nanoha, but this is very good."

Nanoha grinned; her detective skills were good, after all. She leaned forward, her smile widening into something that actually could be called genuine for the first time that day, and pinched Yuuno's cheeks. "Don't look so serious all the time, Yuuno-kun. People will think that you're _old._"

Yuuno blushed and slapped Nanoha's hands away from his face. "It's better to be looked at as an adult in my line of work." He confessed.

Arf threw her head back and laughed, a booming noise that cut across the dull buzz of conversation of the mess hall like a knife, breaking the quiet tension of the room easily. Soon the buzz of conversation grew and Arf paused, her eyes crinkled with amusement. "I don't know, Nanoha, I think that being a child makes that you can take the stuffed shirts at the Infinite Library by surprise. They treat me like a child and then I know so much more about the magic used to organize the place than they do that they're completely shocked. It's fun!"

This moment of lightness was enough to pull them all out of their funk and Nanoha was glad that she'd been able to pull it off. She couldn't bear to see everyone so serious, so upset, over her own failure to protect Fate.

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_Shinkuru __Academy__, __April 30th, 0834__ Earth Time_

Yuuno Scrya was not used to functioning as a thief. Admittedly, his animal form made it easy for him to sneak into small spaces that a normal human would not be able to get into – it just felt wrong to do something like this. Still, necessity and a rather severe fear that Nanoha and Fate would both be killed next time they encountered Subject A drove him and Arf to make the decision that without both Fate and Nanoha battle ready at the present moment their best bet to actually take the rogue mage down was to succeed in sealing the Lost Logia within him. As Raising Heart and Bardiche were both originally created to be sealing devices, Yuuno thought that even if their masters were not at full power, that either of the intelligent devices should be able to seal the Lost Logia so that they could arrest Subject A.

Either way that they looked at it, and while they were fairly sure that Subject A was not a member of the school's faculty, it would not do to take chances with something as important as the cover for this mission. They could not draw attention to this incident, no more than had already been drawn.

_I dislike sneaking around like this_, Yuuno thought as she scurried up three flights of stairs towards the school's administrative offices. No one was there as it was a holiday, but Yuuno was still worried. They hadn't been back to the school since Fate was attacked, and even now there could be all sorts of reanimated corpses running around looking for a nice ferret-sized snack. Yuuno's pace quickened. He wanted nothing to do with those creatures if he could help it.

He stopped in front of the door and closed his eyes. Breathing outward, he pushed his magical power into the spell circle necessary to turn him back into a human. The shift was painful, full of jarring pulls on his bone structure and feeling as though his insides were being liquefied only to be remade again in their proper human shape. It was a necessary evil for the convenience of having an animal form and one that Yuuno was willing to accept every time he found himself in a situation like this.

As he got shakily to his feet, he pulled on the teacher's room door, whispering a spell under his breath to grease the lock and make it open easily. It slid open after a moment of resistance and Yuuno grinned. It was now a matter of a simple tracking spell for latent magical energy and he'd be able to find Nanoha's lost sealing round. The only problem was that the building was so saturated with magical energy that Yuuno wasn't sure that he could create a magical search that would be accurate enough to actually find the round in this room.

He sighed and started towards the first desk. Nanoha had mentioned that the sealing round had been taken by her math teacher, but she didn't know where her teacher's desk was. Yuuno pulled open the first drawer and began his search.

Two hours later, he finally found what he was looking for in a plain unmarked envelope with Nanoha's name written on it in a precise teacher's handwriting that reminded him rather disturbingly of his own. He tucked the envelope into his pocket and quickly left the way that he'd come, making sure to relock the door and leave no trace that he'd been there at all. He couldn't risk Nanoha getting into trouble if the cartridge was discovered missing, but Nanoha was sure that no one would think twice about it until Nanoha decided to draw attention to the fact that she wanted her 'good luck charm' back from the administration at some later date.

Yuuno guessed that if Nanoha was the one who went looking for the round after enough time had passed for anger and shock to have faded from the time when Nanoha had gotten caught that no one would ask questions when they weren't able to find it.

They were just covering all their bases, really.

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_Medical Cabin, The Warship Asura, __April 30th, 1151__ Earth Time_

Fate felt as though she'd been hit in the head with a sledgehammer when she finally managed to talk her eyes into opening. She hissed quietly in pain as the bright lights of the Asura's ceiling cut though what had been a warm and dark environment that suited her needs perfectly. Her head pounded and the brightness of the lights was only serving to further emphasize the problem.

_What happened?_ She remembered attacking the mage with the blood red magic, and remembered him breaching her shields, but nothing after that seemed to come clearly to her mind. It was as though she'd simply lost consciousness sometime during the fight.

_Where am I, anyway? _ Fate shook her head from side to clear it and struggled to sit up, only to suddenly become rather acutely aware of a warm lump of something on her midsection. She braced herself up on an elbow and squinted through the bright lights to see the sleeping form of Nanoha resting across her midsection, slumped forward in one of several chairs pulled up next to the besides.

_Medical Cabin_, Fate thought angrily, looking at the many machines that were beeping a little more shrilly than usual, lined up around the head of the bed, taking note of her vitals. Their readouts had never really meant anything to Fate, but she saw a linker core level indicator on one of them and she was rather shocked to see that her linker core was twenty percent below normal capacity. That didn't make any sense, for even after she'd gotten her linker core drained during the Book of Darkness incident, she'd still recovered much faster than this. Fate felt as though she'd been asleep for a week. She had to get up, she had to _move._

_I must have gotten hurt_, she mused. Being in the medical cabin made her angry, because it meant that she'd messed up and had been unable to protect the ones she loved from the onslaught of that man's magical power.

Oddly, she felt fine. She knew that she shouldn't but she was just a little woozy and her head hurt, but whole and complete all the same. She wondered if that had anything to do with Nanoha sleeping on her midsection so comfortably, but quickly pushed those thoughts back down to wherever it was that they came from and prodded Nanoha in the cheek.

"Nanoha," she said, her voice sounding hoarse from disuse. _How long was I out?_ She wondered, moving her hand to Nanoha's hair, gently running her fingers though the soft – if a little oily, she probably hadn't showered today – tresses. "Nanoha, wake up."

Nanoha stirred and sleepily opened her eyes. "What is it…" she asked quietly, her voice thick with sleep. She lifted her head up and Fate watched as she tried to focus her eyes on the doorway, as if she was sure that someone was waiting for here there. The print of the cheap cotton blanket that Fate was currently lying under had been pressed into Nanoha's cheek and there was a red part of her face that Fate knew would feel exactly like the blanket if she touched it, but already that was starting to fade.

"Up here," Fate said, smiling at her friend. She didn't remove her hand from Nanoha's hair, instead reaching her other hand up to caress Nanoha's cheek and gently pull her attention back to Fate herself.

Nanoha's eyes widened and a smile positively erupted across her face as she pushed off the ground and launched herself into Fate's arms. "I was so worried, Fate-chan!" She said, burrowing close to Fate's chest as Fate embraced her.

"I'm sorry, Nanoha," Fate breathed, inhaling the truly wonderful scent of her best friend. It was so peaceful now, with just the two of them like this. As far as Fate was concerned, the rest of the world could have completely vanished and she would not have noticed, for Nanoha was the only thing that mattered to her right now. "I'm so sorry for making you worry."

Nanoha's head pulled away from Fate's chest, a slight frown crossing her features as she prodded Fate's nose with her finger. "Don't say you're sorry for something that wasn't your fault."

Fate flushed and Nanoha leaned in closer, their faces just barely inches apart. Fate couldn't think, couldn't even swallow. She'd been asleep for some indeterminate amount of time, hurt in a battle that she could barely remember and now her best friend was practically sitting in her lap and so, so, so close to her.

"I'm sorry-" Fate began again, trying to make Nanoha understand that she was too close, that this was too much, too soon.

But Nanoha placed a finger on Fate's lips, smiling at her. "I didn't get a chance to say this to you before, but don't you ever die on me, Fate. I couldn't stand the heartbreak." And with that, Nanoha pulled her finger away from Fate's lips and kissed her gently where her finger had been only seconds before.


	6. The Truth is Worse

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Six, "The Truth is Worse"

AN: So there's some kissing, and more plot, as well as the adorable moments that make any new couple completely and totally lovable. Also: a note on the magic, "In Episode Three of the first season, Nanoha uses a wide-area scanning spell to find a lost logia, this is a modification of that spell. The results of that scan are both numerical and imaged based. Raising Heart uses magical energy to see through high-level shielding on a molecular level so that helps to give a clear picture of both the linker core and the human soul, or psyche. The images are just basically heat readings, along with some graphs, but Nanoha knows how to read them." - my AnimeSuki author's notes

* * *

_Medical Cabin, The Warship Asura, __April 30th, 1200__ Earth Time_

This was not how Fate had intended to lose her first kiss. She'd wanted the situation and the build up to be perfect, with romance and gentle flirting to set the mood so that they wouldn't feel quite as awkward as Fate was feeling right now. First kisses should not taste like tears, sweat and unbrushed teeth. Fate wanted the moment to be absolutely perfect before she allowed Nanoha to kiss her; and yet Nanoha had, as per usual, taken matters into her own hands. This was all _wrong,_ but at the same time, it felt so very, very right. She hesitantly put her arms around Nanoha and pulled her in closer, never wanting to let her go again.

They pulled apart a second later, for the kiss was not the sort that was supposed to last a long time. Fate allowed her fingers to trail along Nanoha's cheeks as they sat there, _very_ close together. She liked this closeness, for it didn't come from sleep, but rather from their simple want to be near each other. This was the best kind of closeness, the kind that Fate could live with until she died. "How long was I asleep?" Fate asked, her hands moving to weave through Nanoha's hair. She tugged at the tie holding it back and was soon granted with a cascade of Nanoha's brown locks around that beautiful face. Having her hair up didn't really suit her; she was much prettier like this. "It felt like ages."

Nanoha smiled a little sadly, her eyes closing briefly before they opened once more to meet Fate's with an intensity that Fate had not seen in them outside of the battlefield. Fate wondered what Nanoha was trying to say with that look, for there were so many emotions in those eyes that Fate could not settle on just one. There was relief, and happiness, and something far more intense that Fate didn't have a name for yet; she would have to ask Nanoha what that look meant some time.

"Three days, give or take." Nanoha said shortly, her gaze wavering as Fate met it evenly. It was a cultural thing, to not look people in the eyes, for Nanoha, but something that she was starting to do more and more as she spent time away from Earth. Going back had only brought back old habits, and in a moment such as this, Fate wasn't really sure that she wanted Nanoha avoiding her eyes.

Being asleep for that long, Fate wondered what she'd missed. She didn't want to move from this comfortable and protective cocoon that Nanoha's body closely pressed up against her own had created. She felt safe here, protected. "Nanoha," she said quietly, trying to get those deep blue eyes to meet her gaze once more. "What are we doing here?"

The eyes turned pensive after a moment, and Fate could see a thousand thoughts racing through Nanoha's head as she met Fate's expectant gaze evenly. A slow smile grew across her face, plagued a little around the edges as Nanoha had a panicked thought, but a genuine smile all the same. "I think, Fate, that we're doing something that we've been dancing around for a while now."

Fate frowned. What did Nanoha mean by dancing? She thought that they were being rather straight forward about their feelings, even if the circumstances were not as ideal as they could have been for such a life shaping moment. "About that kiss," she said with a slow smile of her own, an idea dawning on her still sluggish mind. Perhaps Nanoha was as taken aback by her sudden actions as Fate was. This sort of thing was hardly practiced on Earth, from what she'd seen of the planet. Relationships and friendships were private matters. "I liked it." Fate cupped her fingers under Nanoha's chin and pulled her upwards, once more bringing their lips together.

They didn't talk for a long time after that.

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_Conference Room A, The Warship Asura, __April 30th, 1415__ Earth Time_

"As you can clearly see, the Lost Logia crash site is still deeply connected to the body of Subject A in some way. Why else would the beings created by the excess magical energy of the Lost Logia stay in the school's basement if not for the fact that there is nowhere else where they can maintain their existence." Yuuno spoke softly, for he knew that Fate had only woken up a few hours ago, and that she was still decidedly_ not_ at full battle capacity. He was not about to let her risk herself for this mission if he couldn't help it. She needed a few more days of rest and his strategy was trying to push that particular agenda forward.

Yuuno adjusted his glassed and cleared his throat slightly. "We did some tests last night, and I believe that our results are quite conclusive. The beings will not leave the school, and only are active during hours of darkness. They vanish with the dawn. As of yet there seems to be no way of putting them down permanently without some mass-level spell work. If we time it right, we might be able to do something like a cleansing spell."

The remaining occupants of the room looked thoughtful at his suggestion, and Arf slowly raised her hand. She was in full form yet again, looking like a young woman (plus ears and a tail) with a far too serious expression forced across her playful face. It was jarring, for even in the heat of battle, there was always a level of _fun_ that existed within Arf. The thought of possibly losing her master to a magical foe unlike any they'd ever seen before was taking its toll on the familiar. Yuuno knew that he should endeavor to fix her mood before it infected the rest of the group, for melancholy never had a place in such meetings. It was contagious; Yuuno just couldn't prove it yet.

He winced as he thought again of the mountain of research that he had piled up on his desk at the Infinite Library. He was going to be so behind when this whole mission was done and over, he wasn't sure that he'd ever catch up completely. The little side project on the psychological effect of melancholy and happiness was something that Yuuno thought that he'd never finish, as he always found himself in situations like this, doing research on things other than his own pet projects.

Who was he to complain, really? He liked this sort of thing.

At Yuuno's nod, Arf spoke, her voice calm and collected, but her body language suggesting that she was close to shouting on the inside. Yuuno was rather impressed that she'd managed to pull herself together so well. She'd done a lot of growing up in the years he'd known her, for the Arf he'd met all those years ago during the Precia Testarossa incident would have lost her temper at this particular meeting _hours_ ago. "A cleansing spell is next to impossible for a full regiment of mages and support staff, Yuuno, we have three mages and a familiar stationed on earth right now."

They all knew that there was no way that they could attempt such a spell without a great deal more support than they had. As it was they were going to be hard pressed to seal away their enemy, even with Nanoha's superior firepower and Fate's raw mage talent.

Yuuno was not about to risk nearly losing Nanoha once more to a long-standing magical injury so soon after she'd recovered from the first one. Her magic had been badly damaged by the incident, and Yuuno was still sure that Nanoha hid the fact that she was still occasionally in pain from those old injuries from everyone. She was only an S rank mage, and most likely wouldn't test up to the next level until she and Fate were both completely positive that they'd be able to maintain their 'aces' reputation.

The room fell silent once more, Yuuno guessed that everyone was once again trying to think of a way that they could complete a spell like this. Mages were not easy commodities by the Bureau's standards, and Yuuno was sure that no one would actually allow them to attempt such a thing.

What would most likely happen is that they'd find a way to seal away the Lost Logia within the mage, perhaps killing him in the process, and then sometime in the near future, a full cleansing team would come in and perform the spells necessary to make the school grounds safe once more.

Fate and Nanoha would most likely have to stay at the school for a while then, until the team could be assembled and briefed, once the mission was over; as they were the only beings on Earth that could handle this sort of foe. The other mages on Earth were either in poor standing with the Bureau, like Gill Graham and his familiars, or too low-power to actually be of any use on such a mission.

Yuuno wondered how Fate and Nanoha felt about staying on Earth longer than they had to. They both had blossoming careers that were just starting out, and Nanoha had told him of their promise to Hayate and her knights. Soon, everyone would be fighting together once again.

"I'll do it." Nanoha's voice cut though the silence of the room like a knife. Her jaw was set and her expression completely blank. She was far too young to have an expression like that, sixteen and already a grown up warrior ­– _a killing machine._

Yuuno closed his eyes. _No, no, no, she did _not_ just say that. _

Of course, however, Nanoha would say something like this. It was like her to be self-sacrificing and to simply not think about the possible consequences of what a spell like that would do to her. Yuuno knew first hand that Takamachi Nanoha was completely capable to handling an extreme amount of magical energy, but to cleanse such a large area would require the cooperation of fifteen mages of Nanoha's still and magical ability. There was no way that she could do it on her own.

"Nanoha?" Fate sounded concerned and almost shocked, and Yuuno knew what must be running though the blonde's head at the moment. He watched as she fixed Nanoha with a stare that could have melted glass and waited for her response.

Nanoha was silent, her jaw resolutely clenched. "A small spell, a concentrated area," she said quietly, "I could do it, if we could pinpoint the exact area."

Fate looked at her helplessly for a few long moments, her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists on the conference table's surface.

This was the sort of thing that Fate and Nanoha had always fought about; whether or not Nanoha could handle Raising Heart at full power so soon after her accident, if she should even be allowed to continue to use magic after the injuries of that fateful night. Yuuno wondered if either of them simply accepted the fact that they were far too protective of each other for their own good.

Yuuno knew that Nanoha would move mountains for Fate, and that Fate would kill in her name without a second thought.

He wondered just what those two girls really meant to each other.

"Absolutely not," Chrono said from the head of the table. The young admiral had been mostly silent throughout their deliberations, but this is where he appeared to draw the line. Yuuno was grateful for his intervention, as it looked as though Nanoha and Fate were having a silent argument that was about to turn very public. "This is a job for experts, Instructor Takamachi, not flight instructors. I will work with the Bureau to get a team sent in as soon as the threat of Subject A and the Lost Logia is completely taken care of."

Nanoha looked as though she wanted to say something, but close her mouth after Yuuno caught her eye and shot her a meaningful look. She should pick her battles, and arguing about something that would kill her if she tired it was not a good one to get involved with.

Chrono stood up. "Our current concern is the apprehension, if possible, of Subject A and the recovery of the Lost Logia. You now have your SSS+ sealing round back, Enforcer Harlaown, and your team can depart as soon as you feel up to doing so." He leaned on the table, his hands placed just a little further apart than his shoulders and his stance set to inform the room that there was no room for argument. "Dismissed."

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_Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown's quarters, the Warship Asura, April 30th, 2210 Earth Time_

Fate sat on her unmade bed and surveyed the room, pointedly not looking at the brown-haired girl sitting in her desk chair. What was Nanoha thinking, offering herself up as a sacrificial lamb like that? Fate was very grateful that Chrono had interfered before she'd said something to Nanoha. As it was, she was starting to regret her harsh looks in Nanoha's direction earlier.

_Am I really that spineless?_

"Fate-chan," Nanoha said quietly. Her eyes were dark with emotion that Fate did not know how to explain. "You know that I wasn't seriously suggesting that I do that sort of spell, right?"

"You weren't, were you, Nanoha?" Fate wanted to believe Nanoha, and the sincerity in the girl's voice seemed earnest enough. Still, the nagging sense of doubt remained, she couldn't shake the feeling that Nanoha was going to do something incredibly foolish on this mission, just because Fate's own linker core was not up to its usual snuff and Nanoha had to fight at the capacity of one and a half people. She would not have Nanoha taking risks like that, for she was still far too fragile after the accident, and she thought that she could hide her pain from Fate.

Fate knew better. She'd always known how to see the pain in Nanoha's eyes at the end of a long patrol. It had been getting worse as of late.

Fate hated feeling powerless and weak, and now with Nanoha worming her way further and further into her heart, it was growing harder to resist granting the girl's every want and desire. She was delirious with happiness, and had been since she'd first woken up to find Nanoha there and waiting for her with a kiss that could have moved mountains all on it's own.

When had it happened that Nanoha had fallen in love with her back? Fate tried to remember the signs, the tense confrontations and the awkwardness that had characterized her interactions with her best friend ever since Fate had started to have them, more than a year ago. There had been none, as far as she could recall, save for Nanoha being far more _friendly_ while they were in bed together than she usually was, but even that could be taken out of context and explained away.

It was as though Fate's getting hurt had somehow triggered something within the brown haired girl, and Fate was suddenly not so sure that she truly was ready to return Nanoha's affections.

She wanted the girl; she needed and craved Nanoha's presence. That had never been in doubt, but the way that Nanoha was suddenly all over her, even the day before their mission with that _intense_ confrontation in the school's locker room, made Fate worry. What if this was all somehow connected to the Lost Logia? What if Nanoha had just gotten somehow negatively influenced by the presence of a blood mage?

What if none of this was real?

Fate closed her eyes and looked down, not wanting to let Nanoha see the conflict in them. She could keep her face schooled, but her eyes always betrayed her emotions.

"No, never! I'm not stupid enough to throw my life away like that. I just wanted to say something. I can't stand when a room is like that." Nanoha laughed nervously. Fate's brain kicked into high gear once more, for she did know that Nanoha hated awkward silences more than anything else. Yuuno had suggested something that she probably could have done, on some small level with no lasting damage to her magical core, and so Nanoha had simply offered her services.

Fate just wondered if it had sounded as suicidal then as it did now.

"Oh," Fate said, looking up and meeting Nanoha's gaze. She grinned then, as the amusement and laughter was no longer hidden in the deep blue of Nanoha's eyes.

"Yeah." Nanoha laughed again, this time it was far more genuine and had none of the nervousness in it. They were just two girls laughing at something stupid that one of them had done, it was all so very _normal_.

Fate decided that she rather liked it. She looked around the room and her eyes came to rest once again on her unmade bed and the hastily packed travel case's contents strewn all over place. She raised an eyebrow at Nanoha and gestured to the generally unappealing mess of her room. Fate had always been a fairly neat person, and Nanoha tended to be as neat about their living space, so where had the mess come from?

Nanoha shrugged. "I slept in your bed while you were asleep." She said it was though the fact that she'd managed to make a royal mess of the place at the same time had no bearing on her reasoning. Fate was about to say something to her about it, but then she saw the look on Nanoha's face, she looked about ready to cry. "I needed to be close to you when they wouldn't let me sit by your bedside the first night. I didn't sleep, but it was nice to be surrounded by your things," she smiled sadly. "It helped me to feel a little better."

Fate stood up and moved to wrap her arms around Nanoha's shoulders. Nanoha leaned her head back against Fate's chest, and they paused for a moment, simply enjoying the comfort of being together once again. "I figured, you could have at least made the bed, Nanoha," Fate said, trying her best to sound slightly indignant. Fate didn't care, honestly, what Nanoha did in her bed, as she felt guilty for leaving her friend in such a state to begin with. She just wished that Nanoha could have respected the space a little more, as it looked as though a hurricane had gone through it.

"I'm sorry." Nanoha said, looking a little guilty, "Am I allowed to spend the night here now that you've been discharged from sick bay?"

A wicked smile bloomed across Fate's face. She wasn't usually like this, but the situation seemed to warrant it, and it was always fun to tease Nanoha. "I don't know, I really shouldn't let you, after that stunt you pulled," she tapped her finger against her chin, drawing out the words and looking intentionally as though she was actually considering not letting Nanoha stay with her.

"Mou, Fate-chan!"

Fate laughed and pulled Nanoha towards the bed, "Come here, you." They fell down against it, hesitant hands on each other's bodies, realizing for the first time that it actually meant something every time they touched. Fate pulled Nanoha close to her and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Good night," she said quietly as Nanoha nuzzled closer to her.

"Good night, Fate-chan." Nanoha said quietly, and then murmured something else that Fate did not quite catch under the quiet sounds of her breathing and the whirr of the ship's engines. Fate wondered briefly what Nanoha had said to her, under the cover of all the other noises in the room, but supposed that if it was important, that Nanoha would tell her in the morning.

They fell asleep like that, curled in each other's arms, content with the world.

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They returned to Earth the next day, after a stern warning from Chrono to not do anything stupid and continue their mission as previously planned. Fate was to keep herself as far removed from the actual fighting as possible, but both Chrono and Fate knew that her agreement to staying out of the battle was purely for show. Fate would involve herself in the battle as soon as her linker core had recovered enough that it would impossible for Fate to tell the difference between her fighting at her peak and with a slightly damaged core. The ship's medics thought that it would be another day or two before Fate's magic fully returned, so she could actively participate in missions, should she so choose.

Fate, however, was not taking any chances. She had made up her mind to wait to go back to the school until Monday morning when classes resumed, and Nanoha agreed with her that it was the best tactic. They needed to rest, especially if they were going to confront who they thought was Subject A's younger brother that day.

The remaining four days were devoted to the small mountain of homework that Fate and Nanoha were forced to do in order to maintain their cover. Fate was still having a lot of trouble with the more advanced kanji and Nanoha was working with her to get her fluency up again. While they worked, Nanoha would often sit very close to Fate, their bodies pressed up against each other to the point where even if Fate understood the complicated nature of the of whatever they were working on she wouldn't have been able to concentrate.

"I'm worried, Fate-chan," Nanoha said quietly after they'd finished the last of their homework and were sitting on the apartment building's roof, staring up at the night sky. "What if this mission ends with us not being able to save Subject A?"

Fate rolled over, propping her body up with her elbow. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to looking at Nanoha, who lay in a pool of light from the open door to the stairs back into the building and fixed her with something that she hoped was a comforting smile. "Then we do our duty, Nanoha."

Fate sometimes forgot that Nanoha had never been on a mission like this, that the concept that there would be causalities was completely foreign to her. She'd always managed to get though her battles with more friends than when she'd entered them. Fate wished that that was the reality of their current fight, but she knew that she was fighting a losing battle against the already inevitable push of destiny. She did not think that Subject A could be saved.

Nanoha leaned back and rested her hands behind her head, her gaze turned upwards, as it always was, towards the sky. "I don't like that idea, Fate, the idea that we might have to kill in the name of what is good."

The lack of honorific bothered Fate, for Nanoha rarely left it out of her everyday speech. When Nanoha didn't mention it, she was either very worried about something, or she wanted to make a point. Fate couldn't have Nanoha worrying herself over something like this, Subject A simply wasn't worth it. He was just some nameless fool who'd accidentally gotten himself involved with a Lost Logia when he should have known better.

"We do what we must," Fate said quietly. She moved then, rolling so that her arms were squarely on the roof's cool surface on either side of Nanoha's shoulders, her body now hovering above her best friend's. Fate met Nanoha's gaze evenly, holding her attention and trying to assure her with her eyes that everything would be alright.

"Fate-chan…" Nanoha started, her voice lost to the night as Fate gazed down at her. This was a new idea; Fate hadn't ever thought that she should simply take control away from Nanoha and make her forget her troubles. Fate had too much respect for Nanoha to do something like that, and she valued Nanoha's want to take things slowly, ever so slowly.

Fate wanted to take the next step, but she could not find the words to tell Nanoha that.

"Hush, Nanoha," Fate said quietly, brushing her lips against Nanoha's forehead. Feather light kisses that traveled down towards Nanoha's lips, where Fate kissed her with a vigor that she didn't know she possessed. This was not the simple, chaste brush of lips that Nanoha had been offering to Fate, but rather a full-on assault with one purpose, to distract Nanoha to the point where she no longer was worried about the possible outcomes of this mission.

Fate allowed Nanoha to take the lead as soon as she felt Nanoha's probing tongue against her lips. She didn't have any idea what she was supposed to do in such a situation, but she did not want to pull away. She gasped a little at the sensation and that was all the invitation that Nanoha needed to push her tongue into Fate's mouth. It was a strange sensation, both highly odd and rather enticing, to feel Nanoha's tongue exploring her mouth in such a way. Fate tried to move her tongue out of the way, as the onslaught seemed to be something that only one tongue could do at a time, but Nanoha decided that that was the exact time that she wanted to change positions entirely.

They banged heads and pulled apart from each other hurriedly, Fate rubbing her forehead and blushing brightly.

_When did I get so bold?_ She wondered, glancing shyly at Nanoha, who seemed to have her fingers pressed to her lips with a rather happy grin on her face.

"Are you alright?" Fate asked, sitting back on her heels and staring at Nanoha.

Nanoha smiled, "Just fine, Fate-chan." She pulled her legs out from under Fate and stood up, offering Fate a hand, "It's getting late, we should go back inside."

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_Aeronautics Club, __Shinkuru __Academy__, __May 4th, 1630__ Earth Time_

Nanoha sat next to Takeshi Hazuno that day in the club and tried her best to smile at him. She was still feeling uneasy about the fact that he could very well lose his brother to this mess if their assumptions were correct about who Subject A was, and sitting next to him, watching him talk and work his way through long pages of emissions calculations was enough to make Nanoha want to resign from the mission all together. She couldn't do this, she couldn't potentially have to choose between saving someone and sealing a lost logia.

Still, sitting next to him was causing Nanoha to think twice about her assumption that Takeshi's brother was Subject A. Every five minutes or so, Raising Heart spoke into her mind, warning her that she should not be sitting near this boy, for he was dangerous. Despite everything that Nanoha said to Raising Heart, the intelligent device was insistent that there was something off about Takeshi, that somehow there was a strange amount of magical energy present on him that had not been there before when Raising Heart had first detected magic on his person.

Nanoha closed her eyes and set her pencil down, and slowly got to her feet. Now was as good at time as ever, really, to actually perform the scan that she'd promised Raising Heart that she'd do when they'd first met Takeshi Hazuno. She could do it from the bathroom, easily, as no one was in this wing of the school during club time anyway, the challenge was getting away. "I've finished the thrust calculations," she said quietly, picking up her paper and handing them to the club's president, who added them to the growing pile of schematics that was growing on his desk. He was working on a computer, using a program to design plans for their hot-air balloon.

"Thanks," he said, smiling at her as she peered curiously over his shoulder at the complicated black screen and bright green lines of their plan for the hot-air balloon.

Technology on Earth was so _outdated._

Nanoha returned his smile, and gestured to the door, "I'll be right back and then I'll check Maeno-kun's work, alright?"

The club president flapped is hand in her direction, "Take your time, you work too fast for the rest of us, Takamachi."

She flushed and gripped Raising Heart more tightly in her pocket as she slid the classroom door open and headed out into the hallway. She entered the bathroom and quickly checked under all of the stalls before she placed a hastily constructed magical ward on the door that would prevent anyone from coming within five feet of the door. Raising Heart extended into device mode and Nanoha closed her eyes, concentrating.

_Fate-chan?_ She called through their mental link.

_Are you doing magic? Bardiche just picked up on a power spike._ Fate's metal tone suggested that she was breathless, and a quick glance out of the window told her that the track team was currently running sprints.

_Yes, that's me._ Nanoha replied, running through the mental itinerary for the large-area scan. She had to be perfectly prepared and in control for a spell like this to be effective. One wrong step in either direction, or one misplaced spell circle could potentially create a spell that was ten times more powerful than Starlight Breaker at its best. Nanoha had been working on some spells using the basic scan-circle, powering them up for when she finally implemented Raising Heart's blaster system, but so far they were just that, ideas. She didn't want to accidentally test them with so many civilians around. Those tests, as she, Yuuno and Chrono had learned one day not too long ago, were best reserved for Dead Worlds where there was nothing for Nanoha and Raising Heart to destroy.

_ I'm doing a scan on Takeshi Hazuno, something about him is not jiving with Raising Heart._

_Are you safe? Hidden? _Fate's concern was barely hidden in her tone, and Nanoha felt her heart go out to this wonderful girl who cared about her enough to ask the silly questions that Nanoha would never consider asking on her own.

_So kind, so mothering, that's my Fate-chan._ She thought quietly to herself, before speaking more to Fate's heart. _Yes, Fate-chan, no one can get in here, and I'm close enough to centralize the scan._

_Good luck_, Fate said, and the link was gone. They were still so very careful about the telepathy, for the mental violation of having someone speak directly into one's mind was not something that either Fate or Nanoha was ready to fully trust anyone with. They were still very guarded about such gestures of open intimacy, but the mental communication was vital to an undercover mission such as this.

Nanoha paused, the spell circle complete under her feet. She took a step back and slowly checked the lettering around the outside and then inner circles, making sure that she wasn't about to blow anything up. The circle was perfect, as it always was, and Nanoha felt her smile widen.

It had been a while since she'd done magic of any sort.

Raising Heart felt her enthusiasm and started the scan with relish, first eliminating the known mages in the area, along with their devices. Nanoha held her device in front of her and considered popping a cartridge just to make the scan take a little less time, but resisted the urge. The cartridge system was still a relatively risky, for popping compressed magic was considered addictive in some circles. The last thing that Nanoha wanted to worry about was a potential addiction to compressed magic at the moment, so she let Raising Heart take her time.

"Scan complete," Raising Heart announced and the pale pink glow from the magical circle faded away into nothing as Nanoha pulled up the results and scanned through them.

"Raising Heart, are you sure these are accurate?" Nanoha asked, pulling up another screen and peering at the scan's image results. Takeshi Hazuno's form was completely corrupted with a warped and twisted black form that seemed to weave in and out of his linker core and soul, pulling them apart and away from his body.

Nanoha gasped, realizing for the first time what it really meant for a human to become infected with a Lost Logia.

"There is no error," Raising Heart replied. "I do not make them, my master."

The boy's soul had been ripped from his body, to the point where Raising Heart, a simple magical device to pick it up in a scan and present a coherent image of what it looked like. Nanoha had never seen one before, and the sight was breath-taking and awe-inspiring at the same time as being incredibly sad.

This was a boy who could have had a brilliant future as a mage, for the resilience of his linker core shone clearly on the scans, and the magic level readings that Raising Heart had collected seemed to indicate that he was around a C rank mage before he was infected with the corrupting influence of the Lost Logia. Now his soul and liker core were infected with a dark energy that seemed to seep from deep within his body, corrupting and slowly warping them into dark entities of much higher magical powers.

_What had this boy wished for, to become so powerful under the relic's influence?_ Nanoha wondered as she allowed Raising Heart to power down to her normal form. She would have to share this data with Fate later, but for now, she would simply have to go back to her club and try not to spend too much time thinking about the possible fate that existed for Takeshi Hazuno.

This was the first time, Nanoha realized; that she'd ever wondered if she could save him.

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_Fate's Apartment, Uminari City, May 5th, 1941 Earth Time_

Nanoha was trying not to meet Fate's eyes as they talked strategy. It was clear that Subject A, better known as Takeshi Hazuno, knew about the scan that she'd conducted in the bathroom, as he was no longer bothering to mask the magical energy that seeped from his very person.

It was only a matter of time now.

"I think that we should just wait for him to attack us again," Yuuno said quietly. He had been defense-minded from the start, citing that it was better for them to fight this battle on their own terms.

Nanoha believed he was right, but she was waiting to see what Fate had to say before she put in her opinion. Fate was the leader, after all, and she had the best mind out of all of them for this sort of thing. Nanoha had done missions for the Bureau, but never something with this much risk involved.

"I think that he'll be thinking the same thing, and that we should meet somewhere in the middle," Fate said quietly from her place in the corner of the room. She was leaning against the wall, clad all in black and looking every bit the dark and brooding commander with her arms folded and her mouth pressed downwards in a tight frown. Nanoha had told her that she looked very cute in that outfit, and Fate had blushed quite cutely earlier, but there was no trace left of that blushing girl in their commander now. This was an all-business meeting, where pleasure and personal relationships were kept to a minimum if they were present at all. "We need to call him out, but he has to make the first move to attack. If there is still a chance that he will survive the sealing, then we have to make sure that it doesn't seem as though we intentionally hunted him down like some sort of rabid animal and then attacked him."

Nanoha blinked, "So you're saying that we have to cover for the TSAB in case he survives and decides to sue?" Somehow that idea didn't seem to fit very many of the stereotypes that Nanoha had come to apply to the TSAB as a whole.

Fate shrugged, "We do our jobs, Nanoha, we can't do anything more than that."


	7. Because a Battle Rages Inside of Me

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Seven, "Because a battle rages inside of me"

AN: Chapter title is from "Kiss! Bang!" a PGSM song sung by Komatsu Ayaka. This chapter is split into two sections, the second of which will be posted when I finish it. I didn't think that it was a good idea to end this story on an epic chapter, as there's easily two chapters of material left for me to cover. So this chapter will cover the final confrontation with Subject A and the sealing of the Lost Logia, along with the fallout and subsequent angst. The next chapter will be fluffier and happier, in general.

'Point Me' Spells are (c) JK Rowling. I modified it to work within a Nanoha-setting, and I firmly believe that a spell like this must exist on in Mid-Style magic, because they're so damn useful. Still, credit is needed as she coined the name.

* * *

_Above __Uminari__ City__, __May 10th, 2345__ Earth Time_

The constant repetition of the past week's patrol route was enough to make Fate feel as though she was somehow moving in a dream. She took her job seriously, and she knew that she had to be awake and alert for the patrols; she was still mending, and she didn't want to be taken by surprise. The dreamlike quality of her current patrol was rooted in the fact that the conversation between herself, Nanoha and Yuuno had gone silent almost twenty minutes ago when Yuuno had left to make himself some dinner. She and Nanoha had lapsed into that familiar silence that sometimes characterized their relationship, and now Fate was finding herself bored with her task.

Uminari was a boring city at night and Fate found herself wishing – perhaps foolishly – for something to break in the monotony of her patrol. Arf and Yuuno had decided that they would leave the creatures in the school alone for the time being, since they were confined to the space of the school building itself without the ability to pass outside of those walls. Fate missed being able to cut loose and actually _fight_ against those creatures and take them down alongside Nanoha, but with her injury at the hands of Subject A – Takeshi Hazuno – even Yuuno was treating Fate as though she was made of glass.

Fate hated feeling as though she was useless. She remembered what it felt like to watch the people who truly cared for her go into battle against her creator – her mother – Precia Testorossa all those years ago. The feeling of powerlessness had hit her powerfully then, but not nearly as strongly as it was now. Never before had Fate felt so out of control of her own actions, and feel as though the situation was completely of her own making. All she could do was follow Chrono's orders and Nanoha's not-so-subtle suggestions that this battle would be better fought by the people who weren't working with a damaged linker core.

Fate hated that Nanoha had to worry about her, for the last thing Fate wanted to be was a burden to anyone. Nanoha's worried look every time they went out on patrol was enough to force Fate into taking drastic actions just to prove, once and for all, that she was _not_ debilitated by the fact that she'd gotten hurt almost two weeks again.

Her cheeks burned slightly as she thought of Nanoha. Whatever it was that existed between the two of them seemed to be one of the best things that Fate had ever experienced. She could not find the words to describe the warm feeling that came over her every time Nanoha smiled at her, and she had no reason why she flushed bright red every time Nanoha touched her hand. It was just a beautiful feeling, and a sensation that Fate had never experienced before. In a carefully encoded conversation with her adopted mother, Fate had asked what it meant to feel like this. Lindy Harlaown, in all her motherly wisdom had replied that Fate was in love.

_Love, huh?_

It was a strange idea, for Fate had been attracted to Nanoha for a very long time, and it was only the concept of having to work so closely together that had driven them to first sleeping together. Fate wondered if Nanoha had orchestrated that particular part of their current living arrangement on purpose, for Fate got the impression, the more she thought about it, that Nanoha had been harboring affections for much longer than the time that this mission provided them with. Fate did not mind Nanoha's elaborate scheme to get close to her, for it made her feel loved in a way that she had never felt before.

Material and brotherly love was different from the sort of love that she felt for Nanoha. Fate didn't know how to describe the sensation that flooded her body as soon as Nanoha walked into the room, or how she felt every time Nanoha kissed her.

It was just a wonderful, exquisite feeling. Fate was content with that adjective, for she'd yet to learn one that suited the feelings better.

Fate turned a sharp right and started her route over the park. Bardiche's scanning screens were up all around her, bathing her in the pale yellow glow of her own magical energy. The way that Nanoha and Yuuno had set up the patrols made it so that all Fate had to do was move along the prearranged route and monitor the tracking and scanning spells that Bardiche was running. It was a long route, and the magic required was minimal, leaving Fate alone with her thoughts for far too long.

"Sir," Bardiche's mechanical voice cut through the quiet of the night and Fate's private musings.

Fate jerked a few inches in the air, startled by Bardiche's voice. She shook her head to clear it, for it would not do for her to be so distracted and on edge while on patrol, and peered at the screens. The spells had picked up a magical signature, and a strong one at that. Fate felt the skin on the back of her neck begin to prickle as she read the scan report. This was not good; the scans indicated that someone was doing S-rank wide-area spells in the area. "Bardiche," Fate said quietly, slowing her flight until she was simply floating in the air, Bardiche's screens flickering in a dim-yellow arc around her. "Can you open a communications channel with Raising Heart and Nanoha please?"

"Yes Sir," Bardiche said, the communications window on the base of one of the screens flickering to life and moving to take up the entire monitor window. Fate ran a hand through her hair, fixing her windswept bangs unconsciously so that they were no longer sticking straight up, and waited for the connection to go through.

"Fate-chan?" Nanoha's voice came across the channel sounding a little garbled and flat – not at all like her real voice. There was no emotion in this mechanical representation of Nanoha's voice, and Fate did not like the way it sounded. She pushed the thought out of her mind, however, when she caught sight of Nanoha's expression. She looked concerned, and even more so as Fate pressed the keys that would send the reports of the power spikes that she was getting from this location. "What is it?"

Fate shook her head. She didn't know who else could be using that level of magic other than their other than their enemy. "I don't have a visual." She said quietly. "But I'm picking up the signatures for a wide-area barrier spell somewhere around this point…" Even though she was a good five hundred feet above the city, she still kept her voice down - for the sudden sensation of panic that gripped her was not easy to ignore. Fate hoped that her presence could go unnoticed almost as much as she hoped that she would be caught by the enemy.

"I'm coming over there," Nanoha announced, the transmission cutting short before Fate could respond.

Fate sighed and looked down at Bardiche. "What do we do until then?" She asked quietly. She closed her eyes and concentrated, materializing her barrier jacket and grasping Bardiche's reassuring form. The rational and logical part of her brain didn't want Nanoha jumping on this opportunity to fight with Subject A – _Takeshi Hazuno_, she corrected herself forcefully, if they could avoid it – for without provocation, the only thing that the mage was doing was occasionally using magic on a Non-Administrated World.

While that was not completely illegal to use magic on a Non-Administrated World, it was still frowned upon by the TSAB. Mages, no matter how powerful, were expected to come into contact at least once in their lives just based on the fact that such conclusions were inevitable. It was fairly common for a mage to become aware of their talent and leave their home world to train off world at one of the TSAB's many facilities. That was the fate that would have awaited Takeshi Hazuno had he not encountered the Lost Logia, and Fate wished more than anything else that they'd be able to rescue him from the demise that awaited him if they were unable to seal the relic.

They'd been sent to Earth to collect a Lost Logia, not to stop an insane mage – that battle was just a bonus for Fate and Nanoha's reputations within the TSAB, or so Chrono and the rest of the Asura's crew thought. Fate hated that idea they were simply in this for the glory, but it was true that she relished the idea of a battle.

Anything to break the monotony.

"Seek out the mage, sir. So that your attack can be more concentrated once our allies arrive," Bardiche's answer was a few seconds in coming. Fate wondered if he too was examining the odds of their survival should they enter battle alone. She hoped that he didn't doubt her as well, but it seemed that Bardiche was fairly sincere in his assertion that she should at least go and look for the source of the magic before Nanoha arrived.

Nanoha was all the way across the city; it would be around ten minute before she got to Fate's current location, even if she was flying at top speed.

Fate felt a slight smile pull at her face. Even if she and Nanoha were pretty evenly matched on most of their magical statistics, Fate would always be the faster of the two.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. The tracer spell that she was about to run was complicated, as it was very specific to the particular mage that they were looking for. Fate hoped that she remembered the spell correctly, as it had been a long time since she'd used a spell like this to track a person. Mostly she had tracked down the missing Jewel Seeds during her first trip to Earth using this spell.

Memories of her first painful trips to Earth flooded her mind and Fate pushed them into the background of her consciousness as forcefully as she could – she could not have distractions right now. A small yellow circle of magic formed in her hand, the pale glow of the energy illuminating her face against the dark night sky. She narrowed her eyes and stuck her hand out straight in front of her, the circle expanding until Fate could read the writing along the edges. "Point me," she said quietly, mentally working the symbols that Mid-Style magic used to identify mages by the magical signature into the circle. It flickered as the new symbols were added, and crackled with power as Fate tied the final knot in the circle, completing the spell. "Point me Takeshi Hazuno."

The circle produced a small ball of yellow light just at its center. It hovered there for a moment as Fate gripped Bardiche tightly, counting silently to five. The nature of this spell was based on the mage who used it. Since Fate had a lightning-affiliation, the spell would move far too fast for a normal mage to keep up with it.

The ball shot off in the direction of the ground. Fate flew after it, making sure to pass through her own magical circle as she did so, as that was the only way that she would be able to continue to see the tracer spell once she moved away from her spell circle.

Fate plummeted towards the Earth, moving almost as fast as she did while using _Sonic Move_. The bright lights of the city that Fate was speeding towards blurred to thin grey lines as she followed the spell downwards.

She hung a sharp left after the ball around the black hulking form of a large office building and shot along several city blocks before the spell signature completely vanished. Fate stopped, hovering above a crowded intersection. No people moved below her, the cars were still as if they'd all been shut off.

She was within the barrier that she'd detected earlier, but how she'd passed through into it, she would never know. She could feel eyes on her, evil eyes.

_Nanoha!_ She called, looking around frantically. She could not see Takeshi Hazuno anywhere, but she could feel his eyes on her. She didn't like that sensation at all, and shivered. _I passed though the barrier, I don't know if you'll be able to get inside!_

Nanoha's voice in her head was calm and reassuring. _Don't worry. I'll be there soon. Don't engage him if you can avoid it, we should do this together. Ne Fate-chan? _Fate didn't know if she should be frightened by the fact that Nanoha did not seem concerned by the fact that there was a rather strong barrier between the two of them, and a very powerful enemy mage providing the energy to said barrier. It was very like Nanoha to be completely gung-ho about going into a situation like this, and Fate worried that she sometimes overestimated her own strength.

Fate's eyes narrowed and she changed her grip on Bardiche, popping the cartridge that would allow him to power up to Zamber Form. Takeshi Hazuno – Subject A – was watching her, and Fate was not about to let him know that she was unarmed.

"Show yourself!" she shouted across the strange silence of the frozen intersection. She held Bardiche at the ready and waited. Takeshi Hazuno, as they knew from their previous fights, was a bit of a showman, even if he favored the shadows for the element of surprise early on in battles. He would not back down from Fate's challenge.

They'd known that this moment would come, for Takeshi Hazuno's body was completely corrupted by the Lost Logia. They were going to have to fight him, to beat him down until they could seal the relic trapped within his magical core. Fate had hoped that Nanoha would not have to witness such an event, for she still assumed that the TSAB was a protector of justice and good in the universe. Such things were rarely the case within such an organization and Fate wished with all her heart that Nanoha could have avoided this mission all together.

The black-clothed form of Takeshi Hazuno emerged into the light across the intersection. He stood on a magical circle of his own blood red magic and Fate felt a smirk cross her face. She should have known that he wasn't that talented a mage – for he was using a hover spell instead of just the residual energy that came from knowing how to fly.

_Weakling_, Fate could feel the want for action take the forefront in her mind and she lifted Bardiche into a more ready attack position. Still, there was procedure to follow, and Fate knew that she shouldn't be playing games with actions that could lose cause her to lose her job if she did them wrong. "You have trapped a being that you know to be an Enforcer for the Time and Space Administration Bureau within a magical barrier against her will, Takeshi Hazuno. This is an offense punishable by jail time, are you sure that you want to continue with this line of action." Her voice was clear and concise, speaking as she'd been trained to by her instructors. She was an Enforcer for the TSAB, an inter-stellar police officer; she carried the power and authority of the entire Bureau with her actions. "I am Enforcer Fate T Harlaown, and I am placing you under arrest."

Takeshi laughed, a hollow, reedy sound that seemed to echo across the magically enclosed space. His laughter seemed to escalate in volume and hysterics as he slowly floated across the intersection towards Fate. "All I ever wanted was to be left alone. You people showed up and suddenly my perfectly constructed world has been completely shot to hell."

Fate leveled Bardiche, pointing it straight at the man. "You encountered a Lost Logia, a relic from a long-extinct civilization. Instead of leaving it alone, you chose to bond with it – to allow it to grant a wish for you. It has now corrupted you to the point the Bureau's mages are not sure that your soul can be saved."

Her foe looked confused. "What do you mean!? All I ever did was go into a basement with my bother, and then my life changed completely!" His face twisted into an insane smirk. "I am now powerful, so much more powerful than you, little girl." Takeshi raised a knife to his forearm and winked broadly at Fate. As he drew the knife across the flesh of his arm his voice was tinged with the insanity of his actions. "Little girls should not play with swords or in people's business that they do not understand. They should stay away from battles like this. For they will surely _die_ in the process of serving their misguided sense of _justice._"

Fate pushed forward, Bardiche's voice calling forth a low level _Photon Lancer_ attack to distract Takeshi from completing the blood magic ritual to power himself up to his previous fighting capacity. The yellow beams of her attack bounced off of his shields effortlessly, but the man was set off-balance by the attack. Fate frowned slightly and spun around in mid air, readying herself to launch another round of ranged attacks on the man.

From her vantage point, she could see blood dripping down Takeshi's arm, landing on the circle of magic that he was using to keep himself in the air. She bit her lip to keep back a curse, for she realized what was happening too late for her to do anything but react to what was happening.

As his blood fell onto the circle of his own magical energy, Fate realized that the blood magic ritual was still going to be completed. All that he had to do was mix some of his blood into a magical entity of his creation and the spell would be complete. Fate watched with wide eyes as Takeshi's magic flared to life, coloring from a pure red in color to a deep, blood red. He howled, roaring as the raw magical power coursed though him.

Fate flew backwards, ever so slightly. She didn't want to be too close to him when the initial shock of the magical rush wore off.

She loaded two cartridges into Bardiche in quick succession and hastily pulled out the spent clip. The motions of reloading her device came as second nature to her and she used the energy that she'd just unleashed to harness the power of her normal barrier jacket – the one that she was used to. "Barrier Jacket – Sonic Form." She said quietly, activating the spell and waiting for the familiar feeling of her magic to wash over her. The new form of her barrier jacket fell into place quickly, and Fate smiled. It had been a long time since she'd used this particular form.

She pulled the black cape off from around her neck and allowed it to fall uselessly to the ground. She was going to need to be _fast_ if she was going to keep him busy until Nanoha showed up.

Fate and Hayate had designed her new barrier jacket almost as soon as Fate had passed the Enforcer exams, for they both knew that a short skirt and a barrier jacket that was almost completely focused on speed was a bad idea for an enforcer. Impulse Form was a much more balanced barrier jacket than the one that Fate had grown up using, and she found it difficult to move at her element's full speed when she was worrying about having some sort of defense.

In this fight, she didn't think that she'd need it. Takeshi wasn't fast enough to land a hit if Fate was moving at full speed, and all their scans seemed to indicate that once he hit the high of the blood magic, his coming down would not be that long in coming. She just had to keep him busy until he ran out of steam or Nanoha showed up.

"Photon Lancer, get set." Bardiche's voice cut through the silence and Fate mentally calculated that she was going to need about fifteen attack orbs in order to cause enough distraction for her to be able to get close enough to hit him with Bardiche. If she could knock him out, they might be able to get this whole tricky business of sealing the Lost Logia done a whole lot faster than it looked as though the battle was going to on for a while.

Fate narrowed her eyes and waited until the spell was fully set before she mentally gave Bardiche the 'fire' command and sent all of the bullets off in different directions. She pushed forward then, Bardiche at the ready as she brought the blade down hard on Takeshi's shields.

He deflected, but Fate had already moved around to his other side to attack yet again.

This was the advantage of her barrier jacket's Sonic Form, the ability to move in and out of _Sonic Move_ level speeds without the added time to took to perform the speed-spell. Fate was in her element when she was moving this fast, for it was only when the rest of the world had blurred to black and white that she was finally able to focus on the present moment, for a single miscalculation of speed could result in disaster.

Still, her attacks would not break through Takeshi's shields. Fate lost a whole clip in the process of figuring this alarming tidbit of information out. She reloaded in disgust, and paused for a moment, watching Takeshi's manic smile and insane, red-veined eyes.

What was he thinking? What was his plot for this battle?

Fate attacked once more, striking the shields with all she had. She could feel them crack under her blade and she allowed herself the briefest of smiles before she spun once more to finally go in for the kill.

Takeshi laughed and moved out of the way of Bardiche's attack. "I finally figured you out, Harlaown."

Fate ground her teeth together to keep from screaming their entire battle plan at this insufferable fool that she was fighting. She couldn't figure him out and now _he_ had the audacity to play the tactician. She powered Bardiche out of Zamber form. She'd have better luck in Scythe form – as most of her spells were based off of that mode as well. "What." She panted. It had been a while since she'd used Sonic Mode for anything other than speed trials, and she was starting to feel the drain on her magical energy far earlier than she would have expected. This was what Takeshi Hazuno's previous attack had done to her. "Have you figured out?"

She was going to have to be careful.

"You sacrifice defense for speed. I focused on defense and _still_ you managed to break through my barrier." Takeshi sounded impressed. Fate wanted to punch him. "What are you, Enforcer Harlaown? A mage? A interstellar cop? Both?"

Fate frowned for she knew that Takeshi Hazuno had no idea of any of the structure of the TSAB, and he probably didn't even know what an enforcer was. This meant that even under the Lost Logia's influence, he still managed to maintain his identity and control over himself. This made the situation a lot more awkward than Fate had originally expected. "I am both. Triple A Ranked Enforcer, it means that I am a essentially a police officer." She said.

Takeshi looked as though something had just dawned on him. "And Takamachi?"

"She's a flight instructor," Fate explained, "A teacher." _And my best friend. _She looked at him critically. If he was being this candid at the moment, he might agree to let him attempt to seal the Lost Logia of his own free will. "All the Bureau wants is to remove the Lost Logia – a relic from an ancient world – from your body so that you can go back to a normal life."

Suddenly, all of Bardiche's warning sensors went off and Takeshi suddenly unleashed an explosive attack, a million little particles of highly-charged magical energy. Two cut through Fate's barrier jacket before she managed to get her shields up, long thin lines of blood trickling out of them as Fate concentrated her magical energy into her shields.

"The Bureau sends a novice cop and a fucking _teacher_ to take me down?" He shouted, focusing all of the energy that he'd just unleashed into one large ball of energy that he directed directly at Fate. With a wicked gleam in his eyes, reflected so clearly across the distance between them, he pointed his finger at Fate and roared, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?"

Fate closed her eyes and braced herself for the attack. She was going to go down, but she didn't think that he was aiming to kill. She loaded three cartridges into Bardiche and concentrated all her power to her shields. This was going to hurt, a lot.

Takeshi's power shot towards her and Fate waited for the blast.

"Raising Heart! Protection Powered Round Shield!" Nanoha's spell cut through the silence of Fate's concentration and Fate turned to see her friend pointing Raising Heart directly at her, just in time to deflect the attack. The rebound sputtered out and Nanoha's eyes turned steely as Fate flew up to meet her. "I told you to wait for me, Fate-chan," she said with a sad smile.

Fate shrugged. "These things just sort of happen, Nanoha." She shivered slightly in the late spring breeze and held Bardiche's scythe form up along side Raising Heart. "He seems to have figured out my attack strategy, so we're going to have to change tactics."

"A bind?" Nanoha asked quietly. She looked at Takeshi from behind their protective barrier with narrowed eyes. "He's fast, though."

"Not if he's distracted." Fate pointed out.

Nanoha looked at Fate with a curious expression on her face, and Fate shivered once more in the chill of that look. She passed Raising Heart to Fate and pulled off the outer layer of her barrier jacket, handing it to Fate with a smile. "You look cold," she said quietly. "And you're a sitting duck in that form. What were you thinking?!"

Fate sheepishly shrugged and pulled on the jacket, allowing it to extend and blend into the rest of her barrier jacket. The sleeves vanished and the long tails of the cloak trailed down around Fate's ankles. Fate's eyes widened as the outer layer of Nanoha's barrier jacket morphed into something that was far more suited to her own fighting style. It was similar to her own cloak in Impulse Form, but the accents were still blue - instead of black. Fate wondered if, perhaps, Nanoha would let her keep this cloak to use with Impulse form on a more regular basis. She rather liked being bathed in her best friend's protection and warmth.

Still, Nanoha was truly sacrificing a great deal of her defense to give Fate this cloak. Fate just hoped that she wouldn't need it later on. "Thanks," she said.

"You have a Nanoha-cape now. There's a lot of defense magic in it, so be careful, alright?" Nanoha grinned. Her face turned serious, as Takeshi's shouting seemed to have quieted down to a dull roar, and the onslaught of his attack had slowed. "What's your plan?" she asked, her voice suddenly businesslike.

Fate responded as a superior officer, as she had been trained. She was very used to giving orders to people, and Nanoha was no different, when the blond thought about it. Except for the fact that the chances that Nanoha actually _listened_ to her suggestions were around seventy percent, but that was to be expected when you're giving orders to your best friend. "I can go in and hit him with _Arc Saber_ while you blast him. He's still a novice fighter, and most of his rage and skill is controlled by the bursts of power he gets from the relic. The sooner we seal that, the better."

Nanoha nodded and they shot apart once more. Fate launched herself to the north, overshooting Takeshi and coming at him from behind, Bardiche's scythe form ready to cut through his shields with _Scythe Slash_ as soon as her initial attacks had him on the defensive. _Arc Saber, _she realized, was not enough to penetrate Takeshi's shields. She hoped that her normal defense-shattering attack would be enough for her to actually get through his defenses enough to put a bind on him.

She wouldn't be able to hold him for long, no matter what she did.

Nanoha launched fifteen _Axel Shooter_ bullets that bombarded Takeshi from all angles as Fate moved in closer. She was confident that Nanoha would never hit her with a spell, for Nanoha's control was close to perfect and she would never put Fate at risk. Fate grinned, for there was a reason why Nanoha was a mid-range attacker and Fate was far more suited to melee-style battles. They had to compliment each other in battle, to counter for each other's weaknesses as only a truly elite pair of mages could do.

"Scythe Slash," Bardiche said quietly. "Get set."

Fate pulled her arm back, her left hand out in front of her to steady herself as she prepared to launch the attack. The cape that was maintained by Nanoha's magic billowed out behind her, a stark contrast to the black of the night and her barrier jacket. It felt good to be protected by such a powerful and friendly force. Fate took a deep breath and trained Bardiche on her enemy, no more than fifteen standard feet away, and gave him the fire command, allowing for another cartridge to load into Bardiche's system.

The extra magical boost gave the normally pale yellow attack a golden glow as it sliced through Takeshi's defense and wrapped around him in an electrically charged bind.

"Nanoha!" Fate panted. She was exhausted, far more tired than she'd been in days, and running on pure adrenaline and the magical energy that she'd been loading into Bardiche after what seemed to be every attack. She was not going to be able to fly for much longer at this rate. "Now!"

She looked to see if there was something that she could land on, to catch her breath, as all of her energy was currently going into maintaining her barrier jacket and the bind on Takeshi Hazuno.

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha shouted. Fate winced. That incantation had always sounded so foolish in the past and it hurt to hear Nanoha say it now, when they were so much older and more powerful than they had been when they first met. Times had been different then, and they were both far more childish than they perhaps should have been. "Lost Logia Seal."

Fate watched with wide eyes as Nanoha loaded the SSS+ level sealing round into Raising Heart and pointed it solemnly at Takeshi. He was struggling against the bind now, and Fate guessed that the relic was perhaps realizing that its minutes as a free entity were numbered. The amount of power that Nanoha was suddenly radiating was astounding, and Fate found herself looking away. She could not bear to see Nanoha's body used in such a way. She should not have to be a magical receptacle for such energies, her body wouldn't be able to handle very much of that power, as Nanoha was not nearly strong enough to channel all of that power into an attack.

Warm pink light erupted from the end of Raising Heart and Takeshi screamed as Fate struggled to hold him in place so that Nanoha's spell could pull the Lost Logia from his body. Fate had heard screams like that before; they were the sounds of a dying man, slowly being pulled apart by a powerful spell. She'd been the cause of noises like that before, and Fate knew that doing this was going to destroy Nanoha.

The Lost Logia, a small round device, appeared in front of Takeshi, along with the round glow of his linker core. Nanoha's sealing spell made short work of the Lost Logia, but as she was pulling the relic away from his linker core, Takeshi reached out and grabbed both of them.

Fate dodged around Takeshi and tried to reinforce the bind, but she was finally on the end of her rope. Her magic was on its last reserves and she couldn't do anything but watch as Nanoha continued the sealing spell, tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Fate said quietly. She didn't know who she was saying it to, but the reassurance of those words fell flat as the light in Takeshi's eyes vanished and he pitched forward to the ground, the barrier that he'd constructed around their battle falling slowly into nothingness.

Fate launched herself forward and caught the falling body as Nanoha let out a muffled sob. She carried the body upwards, towards Nanoha. "We have to get out of here," she said tersely.

Nanoha nodded, her eyes red and blank.

Fate closed her eyes against her own tears as they flew back towards their apartment. She had just single handedly destroyed her best friend's innocence. She didn't know what she was going to do.

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_Fate's Apartment, __May 12th, 0630__ Earth Time._

Takamachi Nanoha lay on her back in the middle of the bed in Fate's bedroom, staring listlessly up at the ceiling. She'd been through twenty four hours solid of debriefing and she felt as though someone had hammered a railroad spike between her eyes. All she wanted to do was sleep, but she feared the warm abyss of that oblivion. She didn't want to know what was going to happen when she fell asleep, for her every waking thought was plagued by that boy's face.

She'd known him. They'd been in a club together; they'd worked on projects together. Nanoha could not bear the fact that she had been the one to end that boy's life, that her spell had not been strong enough to save him.

She'd ripped the life from him as though he were dirt.

Fate, Chrono, Yuuno, all of them had told her that it wasn't her fault. Nanoha could not accept that fact, but she'd put on a brave face for them, telling them that she was fine and that she was coping. She didn't know what she could say to them to show them the hurt that she was feeling.

She rolled over, curling around Fate's pillow, looking for comfort in it and finding none. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes once more and she was powerless to stop them. Fate had left her for a few minutes to get ready for bed, and Nanoha wished that she'd come back. She needed the reassuring feeling of Fate's love, that all-enveloping blanket of warmth that Nanoha had found herself dependant on for sleep.

"Fate?" she called, sitting up and running a hand through her hair. They were not going to school this morning, a valid excuse had already been sent into the school. Chrono had ordered them, as only one's older brother could, to get some sleep and to take it easy for a few days. Nanoha wondered if Chrono spoke like that to all of his officers, or just the ones who his mother had adopted. She couldn't decide.

Fate came to the bedroom door, her uniform shirt unbuttoned and toothbrush in her mouth. She didn't have her skirt on any more, either, Nanoha noticed before the waves of self-pity welled up once more and she forced herself to look away. "Manruha?" Fate asked, her mouth full of toothbrush and foam. She grimaced and pulled it out, swallowing. "What is it?"

Nanoha felt completely pathetic, but she sat up and tried to pull herself together enough to talk. "I-" she started. "I…" The tears that had been threatening to overflow earlier started to tumble down her cheeks. She sniffed loudly as Fate hurried across the room, toothbrush lying forgotten on her desk.

"Nanoha," Fate whispered, leaning in close and wrapping her arms around Nanoha's weeping form.

Nanoha leaned into the embrace, thankful that Fate understood her need to be close to someone at the moment. Fate made her feel as though she had not just committed such a horrible crime. She tried to pull herself together to talk, to try and get the words out to tell Fate how she felt, but they would not come.

Fate held Nanoha even tighter, burying her nose in Nanoha's hair. "You're so strong, Nanoha." Fate whispered. "You're allowed to feel remorse after what happened. You're not an unfeeling devil, just a girl who had to do something terrible to save a city full of people."

Nanoha pulled away slightly, careful not to hit Fate's nose as she struggled to meet Fate's eyes. There was compassion and understanding written in Fate's face, and Nanoha did not really know what to make of those emotions. "I _killed_ him, Fate," she said. "I killed him because I saw that he had broken free of the bind and that you had no more energy to defend yourself."

When she really thought about exactly why she'd done what she'd done, Nanoha realized that she'd acted for purely selfish reasons. She'd watched as Takeshi Hazuno had caught the Lost Logia and his linker core and had struggled to bring them together – thinking that it would save him from losing the relic's power. He'd broken though Fate's bind to do it, and Nanoha had been able to see just how exhausted Fate was. The damage to Fate's linker core, along with the amount of energy that was required to fight against Takeshi were enough to tell Nanoha that Fate had run out of steam. She'd moved in for the kill, continuing the spell even when she could have simply knocked Takeshi out with _Starlight Breaker_ or some other magical blast.

She'd done it to end the battle quickly and protect Fate.

What scared Nanoha most was that she would do it again in a heartbeat if Fate's life was in danger.

Fate looked taken aback, and then her cheeks flushed a bright pink that Nanoha had not expected. "I'm honored that you would want to protect me like that, Nanoha." She said, and Nanoha could hear the sincerity in her voice. It was so unlike the superficial words of comfort that she'd gotten from the Asura's medical team and support staff during the debriefing. Fate's words had a warmth to them that Nanoha could lose herself in and completely forget the past two days. "And you're right in thinking that you took the easy way out."

Fate reached up and cupped Nanoha's cheek. Nanoha could feel her own cheeks flush to match Fate's own. She didn't know how Fate had managed to drive all thoughts of what had happened – all of her worries and self-pity completely out of her mind with a simple smile and embrace. Was she really that far gone for Fate that even the simplest of romantic gestures caused her to forget everything else? "Sometimes, Nanoha, the easy way out is the best one. I wouldn't have lasted much longer, and you had already used up the only sealing round that we had capable of actually sealing the relic. You did what you did because you had to, there were no other options."

Nanoha frowned. "I killed him, Fate. I should have thought it through."

Fate leaned forward and kissed Nanoha gently on the cheek. "You should be quiet now," she said, her lips moving to nip at Nanoha's ear. Nanoha suddenly found herself unable to voice any more objections to Fate's logic – for the hot breath on her ear was making it very hard for Nanoha to think of doing anything other than kissing Fate senseless. "I would do the same for you, and that's all that should matter to you. Today was a bad day, but tomorrow is a new day."

Nanoha sighed contentedly and allowed herself to fall backwards on the bed, pulling Fate down with her. It felt strangely opposite for Fate to be the one on top of her, but Nanoha was willing to forgo the awkwardness for the comfort of Fate's lips on her own.


	8. The Promise of Tomorrow

**Undercover, a Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fanfiction**

Chapter Eight, "The Promise of Tomorrow"

AN: The ending chapter is always longer for me than any of the other chapters, and if I have left any threads untied, I want you guys to review and let me know so that I can fix them, ne?

Wow. This has been a long and wonderful journey on my part, and I'm definitely not going to be leaving the Nanoha fandom for a while. Fate and Nanoha are just too much fun to play with and I have ideas for some other stories. One of my shorts, Vivio's First Boyfriend, will be fully edited and uploaded here sometime in the near future, it depends on when I finish it. D:

Be sure to read the thank you section at the end as well. :D

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_First Year Classroom A, __Shinkuru __Academy__, __May 22, 1345__ Earth Time_

Nanoha stared listlessly out of the classroom window, counting down final minutes of the day before she could leave to go and find Fate. At lunch earlier, the blond had stuck her head into Nanoha's class room and explained that there was something they needed to do immediately after school. The idea had filled Nanoha's heart with something that she had not felt since she had loaded the SSS+ rank sealing cartridge into Raising Heart and fired it at Takeshi Hazuno.

Finally, something was going to happen! She was grateful for the fact, as Nanoha was going rather stir-crazy looking for something to do. She knew that she should be glad for the lull in the action, for it finally gave her a chance to think about how she was coping with her actions of nearly two weeks ago.

She'd killed a man, and Fate was right, she'd probably never be the same way again. It was a step towards adulthood, Yuuno had told her and Arf had agreed with him. She worked for the military, and casualties were expected in such an organization. The fact that she'd crossed that particular bridge at a point in her life when she had a wide support network all around her to help her through what had happened was very important, he said, and Nanoha should take full advantage of the fact.

Nanoha didn't know what exactly she was taking advantage of. She wasn't behaving any differently, that she could tell, and aside from not sleeping as well. Fate watched her like a hawk and Nanoha was not really sure what the blond was looking for. She felt perfectly fine, and while she appreciated Fate and the other's concern, it was getting a little ridiculous.

Fate told her that once they got into battle again, Nanoha would be able to see what she was looking for. She didn't understand the blond sometimes, but she had dismissed the comment in favor of snuggling closer to Fate and going back to sleep for the additional ten minutes that Raising Heart and Bardiche had allowed them.

The final minutes of class passed quickly and Nanoha hastened out of the classroom almost as soon as the teacher had left. She was skipping cleaning duty today, but she didn't think that her classmates would notice.

After nearly two weeks of work on Chrono's part, they'd finally managed to assemble a cleansing team aboard the Asura and they were scheduled to arrive on Earth later tonight to complete their task. Nanoha was excited, for she'd never seen a cleansing team at work, and she hoped that she and Fate would be able to participate in the process.

Fate met her by the shoe lockers and Nanoha felt a smile spread across her face as soon as Fate's expression brightened considerably upon seeing Nanoha. "Nanoha," she said quietly, her hands clenched tightly around her school bag. "Chrono wants us on the Asura in twenty minutes."

Nanoha nodded, opening her shoe locker and collecting her outdoor shoes. She slipped out of her school shoes and quickly stuffed her feet in to the far more sensible sneakers that she'd worn to school that morning. "Are we going to go home and then go, or do you want to just find a secluded corner and go from there?" she asked. She wasn't speaking Japanese any more and she hardly noticed the change.

This had been happening more and more frequently to her and Nanoha was not sure that she liked the idea of suddenly losing her skills at her own language in favor of one that she was only still just learning. It was useful to speak the dialect of English that they spoke on Mid, and it made the process of creating magic with Raising Heart much easier now that they understood each other's working language; but Nanoha felt as though she was losing a bit of herself whenever she found herself speaking Mid's language in favor of her own.

Nanoha stuck her finger down into the heel of her shoe and pulled up the shoe's back with an annoyed look. Her mother had always told her that it was bad for the shoes to hurriedly shove them on the way that she was doing at the moment, but Nanoha didn't care, Fate seemed to be in something of a hurry and Nanoha just wanted to get _out_ of the school.

The concentration of negative magical energy was getting far worse now that Takeshi Hazuno had been – Nanoha shuddered – taken care of. Yuuno had hypothesized that this was because there was no longer anything to siphon off the magical energy that still pooled in the school's basement. When Takeshi had been alive, he'd taken the magic that gathered there and had used it for his own magical power, to compensate for the weak magical core that he himself possessed.

Now the power was just _there_, gathering power and creating more and more of those reanimated corpses that Nanoha and Fate had gotten so adept at killing. It was almost as if it was waiting for the cleansing team to arrive and attempt to remove the negative magic from the area. Nanoha was uneasy about the whole situation, really, because it just seemed as though the situation created by the Lost Logia could not be so simply taken care of.

The sound of approaching voices reached their ears and Fate frowned slightly. "I don't know if we have enough time to get home," she said in Japanese, glancing at her watch. They'd made a conscious effort to not speak Mid's language while at the school, as Fate was supposed to be 'learning' the Japanese language and it wouldn't do for her to be lost in her own world with another 'English' speaking student.

Nanoha nodded and slung her school bag over her shoulder, allowing it to hang there suspended by just her fingertips. "Shall we find a dark alleyway then?" she asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow at the clearly stressed Fate.

The blond sighed and grabbed Nanoha's free hand. "Let's go," she said, leading the way out of the shoe locker room and towards the school's main gate. They traveled down the streets quickly, and soon Nanoha found herself in a part of town that she'd never been to, in a dark alley that stank of stale alcohol and garbage.

Fate drew the squares in the air to create several monitor screens at once and Nanoha feel into step beside her, carefully drawing the spell circle with the correct location in both space and time for the Asura. They did not want to miscalculate and suddenly find themselves half-way across the solar system. Fate was using, as Nanoha thankfully noted, the short-range teleportation spell. There was no need to pour the time or the magical energy into the more complex and dangerous long-range spell when the Asura was simply orbiting the Earth pretending to be a piece of former Soviet space junk.

"Are these coordinates current?" Nanoha asked, slipping her hand into Fate's as they placed the final symbols into the spell circle. She was still learning how put spells like this into motion, and Fate was always very careful what she allowed Nanoha to practice with in terms of coordinates. If a spell circle for a short-range teleportation spell was completed with any arbitrary number, there was a chance that the spell could go off without warning, and then the hapless student could, as had happened to Bureau students in the past, wind up with half of their body on one world and half on another.

Such was the perils of learning such a complicated form of magic. Nanoha had no idea how Fate had mastered such a skill at the age of nine, let alone before then. It was really just a testament to how skilled Fate was with a very diverse assortment of magic.

Bardiche and Raising Heart spoke as one as Fate nodded to Nanoha. "Don't worry," she said, "I'm the one casting the spell, so you don't have to worry about any mistakes you made."

Nanoha heaved a sigh of relief and leaned into Fate as they vanished in a shower of dim golden light.

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_Central Conference Room, The Asura, __May 22nd, 1630__ Earth Time._

"Enforcer Harlaown, if you would please explain the actions that you have been taking at Shinkuru Academy in the wake of the confrontation with Takeshi Hazuno," Chrono smiled at his sister and Fate nodded her assent as she stood and quickly saluted her adopted brother. Rank and protocol demanded it, but Fate knew that the two of them would much rather simply smile and nod at each other. It was so strange to see the boy that she'd grown up with as just the annoying older male who lived with her and hogged the bathroom in the morning in such a position of authority.

"Instructor Takamachi and I have been working in the evenings after the students of the school have left the premises to bring down the rising number of reanimated corpses that appear in the school every night. While it seems like a waste of both magical energy and time, we've discovered that there is a direct parallel to their numbers when we do, and then do not, go through every night and eliminate as many of them as we can." Fate explained. She reached down and took a sip of water from the cup that was waiting by her chair. "Before the cleansing team heads in later tonight, we will sweep through the school and eliminate as many of the creatures as we can so that your work will be unhindered once you arrive and begin your task."

The room was silent, and Fate let her eyes wander over towards Nanoha. The brown-haired girl was chewing on her thumbnail and looking pensive, and Fate was positive that she was thinking of offering up some of her magical power to help with the effort to eliminate the negative energy that shrouded he school.

Fate would not let that happen. Nanoha was the sort to blindly rush into something and not even consider the consequences of what participation in such a huge drain on her magical skill and energy would do.

Chrono raised his eyebrows at Fate's declaration and shook his head slightly. "I have already dispatched a squad of lower-ranked enforcers to take care of that problem, Enforcer Harlaown. I do not want you or Instructor Takamachi involved in this cleansing." His eyes pleaded with Fate to understand, and Fate could not quite bring herself to watch her authority over the investigation be completely undermined like that. Chrono was her _brother, _he never did things like this without warning her first.

"Sir-" Fate said curtly. She was not going to bother saluting him, and from the frown that flickered across his face, he could tell that she was mad at him.

_Good_, she thought, looking over to Nanoha, who looked even more put out than usual. _ Now why would he want us to not be around the school while this cleansing was taking place? I've been to them before, they're perfectly normal._ She closed her eyes and frowned, thinking.

Yuuno stood up and launched into some schematics of the actual mission and Fate found herself slowly tuning out his voice as she allowed her heart to reach out to Nanoha. _I'm sorry_, she said mentally. _I know that you wanted to help._

There was a smile in Nanoha's voice;_ You would not have let me do it, Fate-chan. You're too protective of me to let me do something like participate in a cleansing ritual._

Fate shook her head slightly_, It's not that and you know it. It just has to do with the fact that I don't want you using up that much of your magical power in one sitting. It takes a long time to come back Nanoha! You have to be more careful._

"Fate and Nanoha are going to supervise and run the mission from here," Fate's attention was turned back to the conversation at hand with Chrono mentioning her name. "I do not want anyone who has had any contact with that school near it when the cleansing ritual begins. The amount of negative magic in that place is essentially enough to reanimate the dead, which means that it could have very easily taken a hold of you in one way or another. I'm ordering you both to have a full physical exam once this mission is over and you are extracted from your undercover positions."

Fate nodded and Nanoha raised her hand tentatively. "Why can't we go in and kill the creatures beforehand?" she asked, her voice sounding as though she was not really sure why exactly she was asking the question, but rather asking it on the principle of the fact that it needed to be asked. Fate was grateful that her friend was willing to put herself out on a limb like that, as the words had died on the tip of Fate's tongue when she'd seen the serious expression on Chrono's face.

Yuuno shakily raised his hand once again and Fate wondered if he knew that he _could_ speak without asking for a turn to do so beforehand. "I can answer that, Nanoha."

Nanoha turned and stared at him expectantly.

"What you have to understand is that you and Fate have been working in the school for some time, and the magical energy has not reacted as negatively to you being there as you have to it. Basically, it's decided that you're a non-offensive magical force that it doesn't need to strike out against –"

Nanoha's brow furrowed, "You're saying that this magical energy, even with the Lost Logia sealed and locked up on this ship, still has a mind of its own?"

"Not in so many words," Yuuno leaned forward, "but yes, it is functioning like an autonomous being, but it isn't. All of Takeshi's rage at you for deciding to come between him and the power that the Logia was helping him to acquire was channeled into that energy. While it does not see you as a threat now, the minute that you do something that counters that belief, it will most likely latch onto your magical signature and seek out to destroy you."

Fate raised her eyebrows and the rest of the room was silent. "We will wait here then," she said after a few long moments of nervous glances between the cleansing team and the rest of the support staff. "We're not foolish enough to ignore such a potential action."

Nanoha nodded and the matter was settled. They would spend the night aboard the Asura while the cleansing team did its work and then return to Earth to monitor the after effects of the spells done on both Shinkuru Academy and the city as a whole. At the end of June, they would be extracted, perhaps not to return to Earth for a long time.

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_Shoe lockers, Shinkuru Academy, May 23rd, 0832 Earth Time_

The early morning sunlight cut through the trees that lined the school's courtyard as the two undercover Time and Space Administration Bureau operatives made their way across it. One of them carried an umbrella and the other a can of cold coffee; they were sharing both as was the custom for many young couples of that nation.

One of the girls by the door saw them and smiled, raising her hand up in the air and shouting their names, happily greeting them on this beautiful morning.

The two pretend-students shared a private smile and hastened forwards to greet their classmates for the first time.

The school was free, completely rescued from the hold of the dark and evil magic that had nestled itself into the earth underneath the school. The cleansing team from the Bureau had done their job well, and as the two students who knew the events that had transpired the previous night stepped though the doors into the school, they were met with a wash of the aftereffects of the cleansing.

Strong, happy, positive energy filled the school and wrapped around the students, healing the wounds that such a long existence around such negative magical energy could cause.

The two girls parted ways at the stairs and their fingers brushed as they smiled once more at each other.

_This is a good thing, ne, Fate-chan?_

_Very good, Nanoha._

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_On the outskirts of Uminari City near the shore, June 17th, 2034 Earth Time_

Fate's hand in Nanoha's felt sweaty as they slowly made their way along the road towards the beach. The sun would be setting soon and the nervousness between the two of them did not seem to abate with the setting sun. This was their first _real_ date, the first time that they'd gone out together simply to enjoy being together in a more public setting. Nanoha was not sure why exactly it had taken this long for them to go out together, but she rather liked this quiet setting of simply doing something with Fate and not having to worry about the rest of the stressors of their life for a few quiet hours.

Yuuno and Arf were scheduled to teleport back to the Bureau's central headquarters and the Infinite library the day after tomorrow and there was already a huge to do between Fate and Arf as they tried to figure out how they were going to cope with being apart once more. Nanoha thought that it was positively adorable how much the familiar loved Fate and she was rather concerned with the fact that Fate flat-out refused to have Arf travel with her on her enforcer missions for the Bureau.

Fate was always very quiet about why she didn't want her familiar traveling with her on the Asura. Nanoha didn't want to push the matter, but she did know that it wasn't probably a good idea for Fate to spend so much time away from her familiar. Yuuno had had to feed Arf energy when Fate had been injured, and Nanoha got the sense that he'd done it before. Nanoha didn't know all that much about familiar magic, because, frankly, the subject didn't much interest her; but she got the definite sense that Arf was functioning more as Yuuno's familiar than Fate's. That couldn't be good for the relationship between familiar and master, and Nanoha didn't know how to fix it.

They walked slowly down towards the beach, Fate leading the way towards a spot where the stone jetty cut away to lead down to the beach itself. They sat on the steps there, for no one was bound to come by this particular section of the beach so late at night.

Nanoha dusted the sand off of the step and sat down, the small plastic bag of food that they had bought at the convenience store they'd passed earlier crinkling against her knees as she moved. They'd been wandering around Uminari City for nearly five hours now, with a meal before that, so as the sun was starting to set, Nanoha knew that both she and Fate were starting to feel hungry once more.

"It's pretty here," Fate said quietly to Nanoha as she sat down as well. Nanoha leaned into her, and Fate put her arm around Nanoha's shoulders. They sat there content for a few minutes, quietly watching as the sun started to dip below the horizon. The sky turned a pale, and then a deeper orange as the Earth continued to turn away from it.

"Mn," Nanoha responded, carefully breaking through the plastic wrapper of her red bean daifuku mochi cake and pulled the powdered sugar-covered treat a little ways out of the plastic. She was being careful, as Fate was wearing black and powered sugar showed up quite prominently against the color; still, this was such a delicious treat that she could never get enough of on Mid-Childa. The sweet rice and red bean flavor blended perfectly in her mouth and she smiled as she chewed thoughtfully. "Ne, Fate-chan, what are we going to do when we go back to Mid?"

Fate was silent, staring off into the sunset. Nanoha reached up and bushed a few stray strands of Fate's hair back behind her ear. She had her hair up in a low tail tied off with a black ribbon at the base of her neck. Nanoha thought that it made her look rather dashing, but she hadn't commented on it yet, she was waiting for the perfect opportunity. "I think that we're going to have to work really hard at not falling apart," Fate said at length, her eyes never looking away from the sun.

Nanoha pouted and debated telling Fate that staring at the sun would damage her eyes and then she'd be even worse of a shot at a distance. It wasn't worth it, she decided, to tease Fate at such an important moment of discussion. "Would we?" she asked, offering Fate some of her mochi with a curious smile.

The blond shook her head in refusal and turned to look at Nanoha. There was a sadness in her eyes that Nanoha had not seen in a long time, not since the first time that Nanoha had met her, when their lives had been complicated by more issues than either of them cared to remember. "I don't know, Nanoha," Fate said, meeting Nanoha's gaze steadily. Nanoha fought the urge to look away. "Long distance is not really conducive to relationships, and my work keeps me traveling all over the universe." Fate sipped her bottled tea with an unhappy look. "I… I don't want to lose this."

Nanoha set down her mochi, sliding it back into the packaging as she did so. She leaned into Fate, close enough to whisper in her ear. "Then don't," she said, kissing the skin just below Fate's ear. "We have all the time in the world, Fate-chan."

Fate smiled and pulled Nanoha closer to her. Nanoha went without protest, enjoying the close proximity to Fate in such a beautiful setting. Their breath mingled as they pressed their foreheads together, just content to simply be close to each other.

The setting sun flared once more before dipping below the horizon, casting a golden light over the two of them.

"We promised, didn't we?" Fate said, trailing a finger down Nanoha's cheek to rest on the tip of her nose.

"Mn," Nanoha nodded, pushing Fate's finger out of the way and leaning in to kiss the girl's lips. She pulled away and whispered, "I never break my promises."

Fate grinned. "Good, I intend to hold you to it." She leaned in and kissed Nanoha once more, this time more passionately.

They didn't have much time left; their own extraction date was at the end of the month. Nanoha tired to express everything she wanted to say to Fate with her kiss; for it was the only way that she felt as though she could impress upon her friend that nothing bad would ever happen to them. Their love was something special, and their friendship was one of the most important things in the world to her.

She felt as though she was drowning, but somehow, the warm eyes of Fate, glowing slightly in the growing dusk was enough to pull her back to reality. They could do this, they were strong.

**- END -**

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**Thank You:**

To all my reviewers here: thank you so much for taking the time to put your words of praise and criticism down in the form of reviews. This is one of the few stories that I've written from start to finish with out any month-long breaks in the middle of it, and I have to say that you guys have made this a really rewarding and worthwhile writing endeavor.

To the anons on 4chan who think that this fic is actually worthwhile: Wow. I didn't know that my stuff got talked about outside of this website, but thanks guys. You make u not seem like such a god awful place. Also: WTF is up with the lack of proper porn on u lately? fix it, anon. fix it.

To the animesuki Nanoha fanfic board: You guys are amazing, thank you so much for being there to answer my questions and to give me words of encouragement as I worked my way though this train wreck of a story. :D

To Hannah and Elise: Who suggested zombies and tentacles, but only got one of them.

To James: Who helped me figure out the canon of this story, as well as some of the more complicated spell work and blood magic.


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